Salad Niçoise with Grilled Tuna Steaks
Salad Niçoise is the most famous and controversial French salad. Some recipes call for cooked potato, other for just raw vegetables.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 8 large butter lettuce leaves
- 2 large hard-boiled eggs
- 2 medium tomatoes, cut in quarters
- 0.25 cucumber, peeled seeded and sliced
- 0.5 medium green bell pepper
- 0.5 medium red bell pepper
- 12 medium thin red onion rings
- 12 medium radishes
- 8 to 12 medium anchovies fillets
- 4 steaks of fresh tuna, 3 ounces each
- 8 medium Niçoise black olives, pitted
- 8 leaves of fresh basil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Salt and mill pepper
- 6 tablespoons virgin olive oil
- 4 medium baby potatoes, blanched, refreshed and peeled
- 12 medium green beans, blanched and refreshed
Instructions
Prepare the Nicoise salad ingredients:
- Immerse the eggs in simmering (generously) salted water for 12 minutes. Next, refresh and peel. Clean and dry the butter lettuce. Core and cut tomatoes in quarters. Stalk the green beans, blanch for 3 to 5 minutes, and refresh in cold water to keep them crunchy. Peel and seed the cucumber. Cut into 1/8 inch (¼ centimeter) thick slices. Remove seeds from red and green peppers, and slice them. Peel and slice the onion. Chop the parsley finely. Cut off the top and the bottom of the radishes and slice them.
Prepare the Nicoise salad vinaigrette:
- Emulsify in this order: The vinegar, salt, and fresh ground pepper, gradually add the olive oil. Put the vegetables into a bowl and toss together. Add parsley, chopped basil, and dressing. Drain anchovies and add half to the salad; toss. Arrange the butter lettuce on a large plate. Garnish with the tossed salad, and add the eggs, the remaining anchovies, and the olives.
Cook the tuna for the Nicoise salad:
- Cook the tuna: Season the tuna with salt and pepper. Brush the tuna steaks with olive oil. Grill on high heat on the barbecue for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. Serve immediately on top of the salad.
Video
Notes
Good to know:
The Pan-bagnat is a sandwich that is a specialty of the region of Nice, France. The sandwich is composed of white bread around the classic Salad Niçoise. The name of the sandwich comes from the local Provençal dialect, Niçard, in which Pan-bagnat means wet bread. The Pan-bagnat is a favorite lunchtime dish in the region around Nice, where it is sold in most bakeries and markets.
