Salade Niçoise Recipe

The true salade niçoise is made of all fresh vegetables (never, never cooked), boiled eggs, and sometimes a few anchovies. In local restaurants and cafés it will be served with tuna as well, but that's a recent addition; tuna fish was too expensive to use until modern times.

You can order a salade niçoise at the restaurant to go with your meal, but it's just as popular as a complete lunch during the summertime. When you make the salad yourself, if you add potatoes you will no longer have a salade niçoise.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Procedure

1. Make a sauce with the olive oil, chopped basil, salt, pepper and a few drops of vinegar, and put into the fridge to get good and cold.

2. Quarter the tomatoes (optionally, salt them lightly before putting them in).

3. Quarter or slice the eggs. Peel the cucumber and cut it into thin slices. Slice the green pepper, the onions and the artichokes (or fèves) into thin rings.

4. Chop the garlic in half and rub the two pieces liberally on the inside of a large salad bowl.

5. Put the ingredients into the bowl, with the tomatoes going in last, and a few anchovy strips on top. Instead of mixing the ingredients, they are usually arranged for color and appearance.

6. Add the cold olive-oil sauce and serve.