Today we celebrate tuna! 25 Ventôse gives us an abundance of choices, but I’ve decided to go with Escoffier’s version of Salade Niçoise. Natives of Nice insist the salad must not contain any cooked vegetables. A former mayor of Nice who went on to write a cookbook stated, “never, never, I beg you, include boiled potato or any other boiled vegetable in your salade niçoise.” So, potatoes and blanched green beans would be out. The original version did not contain tuna either, but it seems that tuna or anchovies are allowable today. I’ve gone with the less authentic version and have boiled my beans and added potatoes – à la Escoffier.

Salade Niçoise 

2 boiled eggs

20 green beans, ends chopped off

1 head of butter lettuce

1 small cucumber, seeded

5 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

1 can of high quality lean tuna

1/4 cup of niçoise olives, chopped

A few fingerling potatoes or 2 yukon gold

2 cloves of garlic

1 lemon, juiced

1 tsp dijon mustard

First, heat up three pots of water – one will be for the eggs, the other to blanch the green beans. Once boiling, add the potatoes to one pot. To the second pot, add the eggs, cover and remove from heat. Let rest for 10 minutes then remove the eggs and let them cool before cracking them. In the other pot of boiling water, cook the trimmed green beans for 3 minutes and remove them to a bowl of ice water. Once the potatoes are cooked, cool and quarter.

While everything is cooking, peel and seed the cucumber and then slice. Quarter the tomatoes and chop up the olives. Make a simple vinaigrette with mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, a splash of lemon juice and olive oil.

To assemble, place all the vegetables in a bowl and lightly toss with the dressing. Place on a plate or in a bowl and add the quartered eggs and the tuna. Enjoy!