Salade Niçoise

Salade Niçoise
(Mediterranean Main-course Salad)

By now you've seen the clip of Julia in a raincoat, in the kitchen, declaring, "I'm drying lettuce!" In her introduction to her seventeenth episode of The French Chef, all about salads, she also mentions the importance of eliminating water from your greens.


 
3 cups previously cooked green beans in a bowl
3 quartered tomatoes in a bowl
¾ to 1 cup vinaigrette
1 head Boston lettuce, separated, washed, and dried
A large salad bowl or shallow dish
3 cups cold French potatoe salad
½ cup pitted black olives, preferably the dry Mediterranean type
3 hard boiled eggs, cold, peeled and quartered
12 caned anchovy fillets, drained either flat or rolled with capers
About 1 cup (8 ounces) canned tuna, drained
 
Just before serving, season beans and tomatoes with several spoonfuls of dressing. Toss the lettuce leaves in the salad bowl with ¼ cup of vinaigrette and place leaves about the bowl. Arrange potatoes in bottom of bowl, decorate with the beans and tomatoes, interspersing them with a design of tuna, olives, eggs, and anchovies. Pour remaining dressing over salad, sprinkle with herbs and serve.

A note about salad seasoning: It's the excellence of the oil and vinegar that make the dressing. You will probably have to try out several brands of each to find what suits you best. For real French dressing, you want a wine vinegar, either red or white, which is not overly strong and biting. The best imported French wine vinegars come from Orleans; there are good domestic brands also available. Finest-quality olive oil is labeled "virgin," meaning it is a first-pressing of the olives using no heat; some French people prefer a tasteless salad oil, or a combination of oils.

Serves 6 to 8 people

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In 1961, as a recent graduate of the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, Julia Child co-authored the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and launched her career of educating Americans in delicious ways with food. In 1963 she began her own cooking show The French Chef, produced at WGBH. This recipe was published in The French Chef Cookbook*.


See these new episodes from the first year of The French Chef, 1963: French Onion Soup, Quiche Lorraine and French Apple Tarts. They will be broadcast as part of WGBH's celebration of Julia's 100th birthday.

Thurday, Aug. 16, 8–9:30pm
on WGBH 2

*THE FRENCH CHEF COOKBOOK by Julia Child, copyright © 1968 by Julia Child. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. For online information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet Web Site at www.randomhouse.com.

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