Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I like CI's recipe and make it often but am wondering if anyone has a different take on it. I'll be serving it Friday night and my variation this time was to use my home-made, smoked salmon. THANKS

I love Salad Niçoise. CI's recipe is a mainstream version of the original. They call anchovies "optional," yet they're integral to the traditional recipe, and I've seen many recipes that call for peppers and spring onions. Richard Olney actually has a traditional recipe, which I've never tried but want to. It uses only basil as the greens.

Salade Niçoise
From Richard Olney's "Provence the Beautiful Cookbook."

One of the principles of a salade niçoise is that it contain no cooked vegetables. A handful of shelled young broad (fava) beans or trimmed and thinly sliced baby artichokes, tossed in lemon juice and drained, may be added. Pan bagnet is salade niçoise enclosed in a bread roll, left to soak for a while and eaten as a sandwich. In this case the tomatoes, eggs and anchovy fillets should be chopped and the olives pitted.

1 small cucumber
1 clove garlic, cut in half lengthwise
salt
3 barely ripened tomatoes, cored and cut into wedges
2 Italian green sweet peppers or other sweet peppers (capsicums), seeded, deribbed and thinly sliced crosswise
3 or 4 young green shallots or green spring onions, including the tender green parts, thinly sliced
4 or 5 salt anchovies, rinsed and filleted
2 hard-cooked eggs, shelled and quartered lengthwise
handful of black olives
handful of fresh basil leaves
freshly ground pepper
5-6 tablespoons olive oil

Peel the cucumber and cut it half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, then cut crosswise into thin slices. Layer the slices in a bowl, sprinkling each layer with salt. Let stand for 30 minutes, then squeeze out excess liquid and sponge the slices dry.

A wide, shallow dish permits the most attractive presentation. Rub the dish all over with the cut surfaces of garlic. Scatter the cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, shallots, eggs, anchovy fillets and olives casually but artfully into the dish. Tear the basil leaves into fragments and scatter over the surface. Present the dish at table. Sprinkle on salt and grind over pepper to taste. Pour the olive oil in a fine stream back and forth over the surface. Toss and serve.

Actually, one of my favorite summertime meals is a Grand Aïoli. I made one as an appetizer for the 30-person family party we recently held back on the East Coast. I've never seen people devour so many vegetables in so short a period of time.

Amy

I like Julia Child's recipe. Simple and very tasty. I plan to serve it next weeked. It's in Vol. 1.

fitzie

I have Julia's books, of course, and I am anxious to try Olney's - THANKS to you both

I love it with fresh tuna. I have had it in the south of France though and one of the main ingredients was always cooked green beans and canned artichokes and way too many anchovies.

Mary

Mary - We had similar versions across southern France; cooked potatoes, cooked green beans, grilled tuna, Butter lettuce, and tomatoes plus whatever else the House variation was. However, everything was chilled - including crisp, white wines we invariably had. GREAT memories

Yes, all chilled. I love salads in France. And wine, as it so happens.

Mary

I also used Julia's recipe....it is very good with fresh seared tuna, but not sure how salmon will work.

And there was this different take on Salad Nicoise by David Tanis in today's New York Times. How "timely"

www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/dining/a-summer-salad-in-the-french-style.html?_r=1&ref=dining

Nance

I'm not convinced that such a thing is possible...