Salade Niçoise

From Dean and Deluca Cookbook:

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 lb. haricots verts (thin French green beans) or green beans, blanched, refreshed and halved
• 1 lb. red new potatoes, peeled, cooked and cut into 1/8 inch slices
• 1 small red onion, cut into thin rings and soaked in cold water for 5 minutes
• Two 6-ounce cans imported tuna (packed in live oil) flaked into large chunks
• 1/4 lb. nicoise olives, pitted and halved
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced shallot
• 12 anchovies, soaked in water for 5 minutes and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 head red-leaf lettuce, leaves torn roughly
• 6 hard-boiled eggs, quartered lengthwise
• 4 small tomatoes, quartered

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine beans, potatoes, red onion, tuna and olives in a large bowl and toss gently to combine, so as to not break up the tuna chunks. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.
2. Place garlic, shallot, anchovies, lemon juice and vinegar in a small bowl and whisk in oilve oil. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Lightly dress lettuce with vinaigrette and divide among 6 plates. Decoratively arrange hard-boiled egg slices and tomatoes on lettuce, and drizzle with a little vinaigrette.
4. Dress vegetable, tossing gently. Divide evenly among the plates.

TIPS

For blanching the green beans:  bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan and drop beans in. Bring back to a boil and cook for 4 minutes (no longer!). Immediately remove beans from boiling water and place into a large bowl that is filled with ice water. This will bring the temperature of the beans down and stop them from cooking anymore. Drain beans and proceed with recipe.

I prefer to used a mixed greens salad mix for this recipe as it addes even more flavor and colors.

This salad tastes amazing the next day (if you didn’t eat it all the first time around!) because the flavors meld even more when in the refrigerator overnight.