Perhaps a controversial Salad Nicoise using anchovies instead of Tuna, but in actually fact the original french recipe as always been anchovy, only when it came to the UK did it change. As Nigel Slater observes “when in France whenever I say ‘hold the tuna’ I am invariably told that I wasn’t going to get any anyway. Traditionally anchovies are a more common addition than expensive tuna, which was saved for special occasions. I am guessing a divided audience.
Ingredients
4 eggs
100 g french green beans
8 ripe tomatoes
half a cucumber
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
100 g small black olives, pitted
2 tablespoons capers
6 anchovies, cut into slivers
A few basil leaves, roughly torn
2 small cloves of garlic
Pinch of coarse salt
2 anchovies, finely chopped
Small handful of basil leaves, torn
6- 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 – 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
black pepper
Method
Put the eggs in a pan of cold water and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 7½ minutes, then decant into a bowl of iced water. Meanwhile, prepare the French beans, top and tail them, then cook in salted boiling water until just tender and decant into iced water then drop the tomatoes into boiling water, then peel, slice and deseed them. Peel the cucumber in lenghways stripes, deseed and cut into half moons.
Make the dressing by pounding the garlic to a paste in a pestle and mortar along with a pinch of coarse salt. Add the anchovies and then the basil, and pound to a paste, adding the olive oil and the vinegar as you go. Season with black pepper.
To put the salad together, toss the beans, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion and red pepper together with two-thirds of the dressing and decant on to a plate. Peel and quarter the eggs and arrange on top, along with the olives, capers, anchovy strips and basil leaves. Spoon the remaining dressing over the salad and serve immediately.pepper
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