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You are here: Home / Lunch / My Salade Niçoise
Salad nicoise

My Salade Niçoise

March 20, 2020 by Man Has Knife
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Nothing fishy about my niçoise

In a classic salade niçoise, you would normally find boiled potatoes and anchovies, although I have developed a taste since moving to Italia for anchovies, especially very good quality ones in oil from the cantabrico coast, I prefer this salad without them.

Did you know that in Italy we have 2 different names for anchovy depending on how they are prepared? Fresh anchovies are called ‘Alici’ (pronounced A-lee-chee) and if they are preserved in oil or salt they are called ‘Acciughe’ (pronounced A-choo-ghe). Now you know!

This is my version of the famous salad, I still add fish in the form of the very best tuna I can afford, these come in Italy at least in jars, usually around 200g, I have a few brands that I like but I have found most are very good quality. You can always use whatever tuna you like or can afford, this is just my preference. It is such a simple salad I think that every ingredient should be the best you can get/afford.

Try and get your soft boiled eggs just right, I know that boiling an egg varies on many different things, size, egg temperature, etc. For me, I boil water and place a room temperature egg into the water and start a timer for 6 mins, after the time is up I put it into cold or ice water and crack the shell and let it cool down fast to stop the cooking. This almost always gives me a lovely jammy yolk, not too runny, just perfect.

The runny yolk and the vinegary dressing with the tuna and salad all gone together to make a beautiful salad, perfect for a light lunch on a sunny day, also goes very well with a cold glass of Umbrian Grechetto and some crusty bread.

Buon appetito.

Print Pin

Salad niçoise

Green salad with tuna, green beens and a soft boiled egg
Course Lunch, Salad
Cuisine French
Keyword salad, tuna salad
Prep Time 25 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 2 people
Author Man Has Knife
Cost €5

Equipment

  • Pestle and mortar to make the dressing

Ingredients

  • 1 head lettuce washed and torn into small pieces
  • 200 g Jar of tuna in oil best you can afford
  • 1 handful small black olives, smashed and de-stoned Taggiasca Olives if possible
  • ½ Cucumber, peeled and seeded and cut into chunks
  • 10 small Plum tomatoes quartered
  • 1 handful Green beans blanched
  • 2 soft Boiled eggs, 6 min egg is perfect

My Vinaigrette dressing

  • 1 small Garlic clove
  • ¼ tsp Maldon salt
  • ½ tsp Honey
  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard
  • few twists Black pepper
  • 1 tbsp Best white wine viegar, or whatever vinegar you like
  • 3 tbsp Best extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Vinaigrette dressing

  • First make the dressing, into the mortar roughly slice the garlic add salt and pepper and grind to a paste with the pestle
  • Add mustard and honey to the mortar and grind a little more to combine and make a smooth paste then add the vinegar and grind again
  • Next, add 1 tbsp of oil at a time after each grind the dressing again to incorporate the oil, once incorporated add another and repeat, once all the oil is incorporated you should have a nice dressing, set aside

Salad assembly

  • Drain the jar of tuna, save the oil for now
  • In a large bowl add the prepared lettuce, olives, cucumber, tomatoes, green beans (whole or halved) and toss to mix, add 1 tbsp of the oil from the tuna and the dressing, keep a little of the dressing back
  • Toss the salad and make sure the dressing is well mixed with all the salad
  • Get 2 large bowls and split the salad equally between the bowls
  • Divide the tuna into roughly 2 lots and beak each lot over the salad in the bowls
  • Lastly, place a soft boiled egg on each salad and season the egg lightly with a grind of salt and pepper and serve immediately
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Category: Lunch, Salad

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