Salad "Niçoise": recipe with photo

The history of Niçoise: what kind of salad is it?

The classic French salad Niçoise has survived history and become the hallmark of Nice.
Appeared in the 18th century among fishermen, the required ingredients were wine vinegar, anchovies (rarely sardines, and in the mid-19th century they began to add tuna), olives and olive oil. In the mid-90s of the last century, the dish spread throughout Europe, America, it began to be prepared in England, the composition of the traditional recipe changed, undergoing many variations. Disputes about the classic cooking recipe continue to this day. Connoisseurs claim that this is an exclusively Italian dish, and to some extent they are right, since until the 60s of the 19th century, Nice was part of Italy. Some people claim that only the French could have created such a culinary masterpiece. Also, controversy continues over the classic traditional recipe for Niçoise salad. Did the salad then include potatoes and beans, tomatoes and eggs? Many people laugh at this assumption, stating where fishermen could have gotten their eggs and tomatoes from.

In the 20th century, it became so popular that not a single book of recipes could do without it; Auguste Escoffier, a famous restaurateur all over the world, a culinary specialist, awarded the title “king of cooks and cook of kings,” wrote about it, offered his own version of the traditional recipe. Also Matisse, Bonnard, Renoir and Cezanne captured the traditional dish of Nice in oil and watercolor in their paintings. A real war that broke out between restaurateurs and culinary specialists forced the mayor of the “capital” city of the Cote d'Azur to write a national recipe in his book “Cuisine of the County of Nice”, consisting of anchovies, sweet peppers, artichokes, onions... without potatoes, eggs, tuna fillet and sauce with adding Dijon mustard. Nice was divided into two camps - some sided with the mayor, others supported Escoffier's recipe.

In the best traditions

Of course, any resident of Nice will say that a real Niçoise salad should under no circumstances contain boiled vegetables. In 1995, to finally end the debate about the “true” salad recipe, the Nice Cuisine Respecting Traditions . Members of this society include many restaurants in the region, which strive to include indigenous products and dishes in their menus, among which, naturally, in the forefront are Nice salad and pan-bagnat (pain-bagnat) - components of the famous salad, hidden in round bread dipped in olive oil. oil But to get a real Nice salad, the “right” ingredients alone are not enough. The stages of creating this dish are a real ritual that must be followed in order to get that same salad. Before placing the finely chopped ingredients on a plate - everything except the tomatoes - rub the bottom with a clove of garlic. The tomato quarters, salted and patted dry, are added last. Top the salad with a sauce made from olive oil, finely chopped basil, salt and pepper. The capital of the Côte d'Azur has several restaurants that are members of the Nice Cuisine Respecting Traditions society, proud of the history of their region. Among them, the oldest are Lou Balico and L' Escalinada , whose chefs prepare Niçoise salad, strictly following all the tricky rules.

Modern interpretation

By now, many chefs have agreed on one thing - the classic, traditional recipe for Niçoise salad consists of: tuna, cherry tomatoes, green beans or artichokes, anchovies, then onions of your choice or radishes, bell peppers, at the end they still agreed to add eggs, finely chopped garlic , olives and olive oil mixed with vinegar. The main thing is that all the vegetables are fresh, literally straight from the garden; the beans are doused with boiling water before they are added to the salad. But the most interesting thing is that, although it would seem that one traditional salad recipe has appeared, in any restaurant in Nice and in France, the taste of this salad will be different, each restaurateur prefers to add something special to it.

To enjoy the classic French Riviera salad, we offer you several cooking methods.

Niçoise with tuna and beans

Ingredients:

• tuna in its own juice – 1 can
• salad leaves – 100 g
• green beans – 300 g
• small olives – 10 pcs.
• pepper – 1 pc.
• eggs – 2 pcs.
• tomatoes – 2 pcs.
• olive oil – 100 ml
• anchovies – 10 pcs.
• white wine vinegar – 1 tbsp. spoon
• garlic, salt and pepper, tarragon - to taste

Boil the beans for 5 minutes and immediately rinse them with cold water to preserve their rich green color. We bake the peppers in the oven, cut them into strips, and raw tomatoes into slices. Boil the eggs and cut into 4-8 even pieces.

Prepare the dressing as follows: crush the garlic, mix it with salt, pepper, tarragon and vinegar, pour in the oil and beat until smooth. Place lettuce leaves on a flat dish, pour dressing over them, then go beans and tomatoes, eggs and tuna. Place olives and anchovy fillets on top, pour over aromatic dressing.

Traditional salad "Nicoise"

Ingredients:

• 200 g potatoes
• 200 g tuna (canned or filleted)
• 100 g green beans
• 100 g lettuce
• 50 g olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp. l wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. l Dijon mustard
• 50 g olives
• 50 g cherry tomato
• 20 g anchovies
• clove of garlic
• shallot
• salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking method:

Pour some olive oil over the tuna fillet, adding a couple of drops of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Let marinate a little. Fry the tuna fillet on both sides. If you use canned tuna meat, you need to remove excess oil from the pieces and cut them.

Boil the potatoes and cut into cubes. Pour boiling water over green beans, if the pods are long, cut into several pieces. The boiled egg is cut into circles or slices. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Add lettuce leaves.

Refueling. Whisk Dijon mustard together with vinegar and the remaining olive oil, add anchovies, garlic, finely chopped, and onion. Add potatoes, tomatoes, and olives to the resulting mixture.

Place tuna, egg slices, salad and beans on a plate. Pour in the prepared mixture.

Bon appetit!

French salad Niçoise according to the classic recipe

Kitchen utensils: blender, cutting board, blender, serving dish.

List of ingredients

For the salad:

For refueling:

Cooking sequence

1. First of all, boil the eggs. Here it should be taken into account that you need to take several more quails than usual. They require less time to prepare: approximately 5-7 minutes from the moment the water boils.
2. Fill the finished eggs with cold water. This procedure will clean them better and cool down faster.
3. Place the young bean pods in boiling water for five minutes, then remove and dip in cold water.
4. While the eggs and beans are cooking, let's prepare the dressing.
5. Place all the ingredients in a blender bowl and grind and mix at the same time.
6. You can prepare the salad either in one container or lay it out in portions at once.
7. We tear the washed lettuce leaves with our hands and place them on the prepared dish or plates. You can add arugula and spinach to the lettuce leaves.
8. Place anchovies on the greens.
9. Cut the olives into slices and sprinkle on the salad.
10. Cut cherry and quail eggs in half and place on greens with fish. If you have regular eggs and tomatoes, then cut them into slices.
11. Using a spoon, pour the dressing over the salad and serve.

Royal salad and salad with red fish are just as light and tasty.

Salmon Niçoise salad from Gordon Ramsay

We will need:

• 400 grams of potatoes
• 400 grams salmon fillet
• 200 g green beans
• 200 g cherry tomato
• ½ pack of lettuce
• ½ can olives
• 40 grams butter
• 75 g extra virgin olive oil
• 4 eggs
• ½ lemon
• basil
• salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce

• 25 ml vinegar (it is better to use wine vinegar)
• 25 ml mustard
• 25 ml tarragon
• 200 ml cold pressed olive oil
• egg (take only the yolk)
• salt and sugar to taste

Cooking method:

Cut cherry tomatoes in half. Pour in olive oil, salt and pepper, grate the lemon and zest, and chop the basil. The resulting mixture should infuse.

Cut the peeled potatoes and cook as usual (the main thing is not to overcook them). Then fry the potatoes in vegetable oil (2 tablespoons). Place in a colander to drain the oil.

Place the green beans in the frying pan where you previously fried the potatoes for just a couple of minutes.

Place the salmon fillet in a pan of boiling water, after adding sweet peas, salt, and, if desired, herbs. After a couple of minutes, take it out (the main thing is not to overcook, otherwise the fillet will not crumble when slicing).

Eggs. You'll have to work hard here. Take a small cup, grease the inside with butter, then add the separated yolk. Cook in a water bath until cooked, it should not look raw. Cut the yolk into four parts.

Refueling. Separate the yolks from the whites, beat with a mixer, adding vegetable oil (generally it is recommended to add 2:1 with olive oil), then slowly pour in the wine vinegar and pour in the tarragon, you can add the spices you like. The resulting thick mass can be diluted with boiled cold water (2 tablespoons) if you think the sauce is too thick..

Place the lettuce on a plate, then boiled potatoes and salmon, chopped yolk, beans and tomatoes, pour everything with dressing. Bon appetit.

Option with poached egg

And here is another Niçoise salad with tuna. The classic recipe becomes even more classic because one of the main ingredients is prepared in a purely French way. To begin with, the tuna steak is breaded in sesame seeds and fried - very quickly, for a minute on each side. The next step is to create a poached egg. The classic way is to add salt to boiling water, pour a spoonful of vinegar into it, screw a funnel in the center of the saucepan and carefully crack a fresh egg into it. It should cook for a minute or two until the whites set. For cooks who are unsure of themselves, you can suggest another technique: break an egg into a ladle and lower it into the boiling water prepared in the described manner.

All that remains is to assemble the Nicoise. The salad is torn (you can take a little bit of different things), tuna is cut into it, boiled green beans and coarsely grated carrots are poured into it. For the dressing, chop some anchovies and a clove of garlic; they are mixed with pepper in olive oil, combined with wine vinegar and anchovy juice. The sauce is poured over the food in the plate, poached is laid on top, and cherry and olive halves are placed on the sides. You can enjoy it!

Niçoise with tuna and pickles

Products:

• arugula – 200 g
• pickled cucumbers – 2 pcs.
• potatoes – 3 pcs.
• tuna in oil – 1 can
• red onion – 1 pc.
• parsley – 5 g
• basil – 10 g
• cherry – 5-7 pcs.
• eggs – 4 pcs.
• mayonnaise – 2 tbsp. spoons
• olive oil – 50 ml
• wine vinegar - 1 tbsp. spoon

Mash the tuna with mayonnaise, add chopped cucumbers, basil and parsley to it. Mix arugula with halved tomatoes, cut boiled eggs into halves, potatoes into slices, onion into rings. Mix all the vegetables, pour a dressing of olive oil and vinegar, place the tuna mixture in the center, and eggs on the sides.