My dearest memory of Salade Niçoise dates back to Nice in October 1992. I spent one year in Lyon, France, studying and took a train to Nice to meet my parents for the 50^th birthday of my late father. We spent a fantastic holiday week there, enjoying oysters in the old town, seeing fabulous art in the modern art museum, wandering the streets of Monaco and shopping in Nice.

There is however one memory stronger than any other – it was after my parents had taken the plane back to Finland and I had no idea when I was going to see them the next time. I had to wait for my train for quite a few hours and with a terrible homesickness could not think of eating anything. In order to make the time fly by, I decided to take a seat in a cosy restaurant on the Rue Massena. Crying my heart out and explaining the reason for my miserable state of mind to the waitresses, I was suggested that it would be good for me to eat something and a Salade Niçoise might be a suitable choice.

That Salade Niçoise turned out to be a perfect one and believe me – I have tried a few since then. The main thing in this salad is that the ingredients are fresh and of high quality. The best type of green salad for Salade Niçoise is for example loose-leaf or oak leaf salad. Naturally also other types of salads do well as long as they are fresh. Remember to dry the salad well after washing it.

The salad dressing for this salad has to be a traditional French, but not too thick. This part of the dish is the specialty of my husband and here comes his recipe:

1,5 dl olive oil

1 tbsp. white wine vinegar

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 wedge of lemon

½ tsp. Provence Herbs

½ garlic glove

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

Mix the Dijon mustard with the squeezed lemon juice and white vinegar (please note that the balsamic vinegar makes the dressing too thick). Add sugar, salt, crushed garlic and Provence Herbs. Add oil gradually and keep on stirring the sauce while you add the oil. Chill the dressing in the fridge before serving it.

It is essential to use a perfect olive oil for your salad dressing. Just like in wines, there are a lot of differences in the tastes of olive oils. For this salad we used De Prado Extra Virgin olive oil (sold in Helsinki in Stockmann Department store food department).

A proper Salade Niçoise contains tuna, which is a lot debated fish nowadays. Please be considerate and only use skipjack line-fished tuna, which you can find for example from John West product range (since 2011). It is more expensive than some other supermarket brands, but 95% of the material used for John West canned tuna, is nowadays skipjack – species that Greenpeace and Fishwatch recommends you to eat, in case you eat tuna. And for your boiled eggs to add into this salad choose those free-range eggs – as also for any other use…

This salad naturally has to have some olives. My absolute favorite ones are the Arnaud olives from France and for this salad especially the Olives Noires Dénoyautées Au Thym de Provence (Pitted Black Olives with Thyme of Provence). In Helsinki you can find them in DeliDeli, a French gourmet shop in Hakaniemen Halli (A Food Market Hall in Hakaniemi).

 

An essential ingredient is also “les haricot verts” aka green beans. In many countries you can find them fresh around the year and if not, there are good frozen ones in the market. Do not however use the canned ones (such as Bonduelle) for this salad, as they are pre-prepared in a bit different way and are more suitable as a side dish for a steak for example. And for the sake of the appearance of the salad, do not cut those fantastic green beans into pieces – just leave them long and make sure not to overcook them…

And finally the anchovies – I could not live without Italian Sangiolaro anchovies! They are extremely salty, terribly unhealthy but oh, so tasty. In Helsinki you can find them for example from Stockmann department store food department.

I choose to leave the potatoes out of my salad, but in case you feel like adding them, choose a suitable potato variety such as Nicola (or Siikli in Finland).

 

A wine that goes well with this course is for example Pierre Sparr, Rayon D’Alsace Edelzwicker or Kung Fu Girl Riesling, Charles Smith Wines, Columbia Valley.