SALAD FROM THE RIVIERA

Around this time of year, my vegetable garden reminds me to prepare salade Nicoise. If I`m lucky, my tomatoes are ripening and I have plenty of green beans. It`s easy to see how the salad developed in the minds of French country cooks as they checked their gardens to see what was ready to eat.

During the years I spent studying cooking in France, I found salade Nicoise the perfect late night supper after a stroll in Paris. Often I went to Cafe de Paris on the Champs Elysses, where the salad was made of tomatoes, green beans, potatoes and tuna and garnished with black olives, anchovies and hard-cooked eggs. This was the accepted rendition in chefs` culinary manuals and was widely available at simple bistros and as a take-home salad at charcuteries.

When I visited Nice on the Mediterranean coast of southern France, I was surprised to learn that here this so-called classic recipe is heresy to many. Some chefs in the area are horrified by the addition of potatoes and only grudgingly permit green beans.

Citing their grandmothers as the authorities, Provencal experts insist that salade Nicoise be composed only of raw, freshly picked vegetables. Tomatoes should be the stars and should be combined with mesclun (baby greens) and fresh onions. Only olive oil can be poured on as the dressing. Vinegar is shunned; it would alter the taste of the tomatoes. The salad is decorated with a few anchovies, hard-cooked eggs and black olives, which must be the oil-cured Nicoise type. In season, cooks throw in a few other local raw vegetables in modest amounts -- tender artichokes, sweet peppers, celery or uncooked fava beans in their pods.

Restaurateurs in the region generally stick to this simple formula. When I dined at La Mere Besson restaurant in Cannes nearly 20 years ago, Josephine Besson, who was still running her bistro at age 75, added only a sprinkling of fresh basil and parsley to the basic recipe. I treasure her book, ``Ma Cuisine Provencale`` (Albin Michel, 1977) and her inscription to me, ``How beautiful is Provence, how pleasant the cuisine, it brings joy to your heart and the sun to your stomach.``

Her note illustrates the profound love and esteem that the Provencal people feel for their time-honored fare. Although some might seem to stubbornly adhere to outdated formulas, they are motivated by a desire to preserve their heritage. In its regional context, the recipe certainly makes sense. Nicoise olives, fine olive oil and mesclun lettuce might be expensive for us, but they have long been affordable and readily available in southern France.

Most chefs in the area allow tuna, which they admit even grandma would add to her heirloom recipe when she could get some. (ITAL) Haricots verts (uñTAL), the super-slim French green beans, are OK with many too. Guy Gedda writes in ``Le Grand Livre De La Cuisine Provencale`` (Lafon, 1997) that you can substitute them for the raw artichokes or fava beans and acknowledges that ``even a few drops of vinegar won`t send us to hell.``

Chefs of the province`s fancy eateries also try to be true to the original, embellishing it with a light hand. Even a superstar like Alain Ducasse is careful not to tamper with tradition. Concerned with authenticity, he calls his salad ``like a Nicoise`` in his beautiful book, ``Ducasse Flavors of France,`` written with Linda Dannenberg (Artisan, 1998). He adds both raw and fried artichokes and replaces the mundane hard-cooked chicken eggs with quail eggs. A garnish of croutons topped with tapenade, the Provencal olive paste, completes the picture.

With our fondness in America for Mediterranean cooking, our chefs have adopted this salad from the Riviera with gusto. Many follow the Parisian version fairly closely, although they might bake their potatoes and add roasted peppers. However, U.S. restaurateurs prefer grilled fresh tuna over canned fish. Often the generous portion they include turns the dish into a tuna entree rather than a tomato salad so their customers can order it for lunch.

You can imagine what French purists would say about some of the wilder American concoctions, like those containing chicken, smoked salmon, asparagus or beets, or tossed with lime juice, Asian vinaigrette or hot salsa. Perhaps worst of all, to the Nicoise way of thinking, some chefs use hardly any tomatoes.

In my kitchen I usually make the salade Nicoise I enjoyed in Paris. I break ranks with the Provencal cooks on the potato question. Potatoes were probably added for frugality, and therefore could be considered in the spirit of the salad. Besides, to my family, the salad tastes good that way.

Giving the salad an American twist with grilled tuna has its merits but preparing it demands organization and a bit of time and expertise. For ease and speed, I opt for the old-fashioned French way. Canned tuna can be delicious, especially the kind that comes in olive oil, which is what they prefer in Nice. Besides, it is a great convenience food so you can make your salade Nicoise as soon as you find good tomatoes and green beans, whether in your market or your garden.

CAFE DE PARIS NICOISE SALAD

This salad is inspired by the one I liked at Cafe de Paris on the Champs Elysses. You can easily adjust it to your family`s or friends` tastes. If people hate anchovies or avoid eggs, omit them. In Nice, the olives that top the salad have pits; people know this because they are familiar with these olives. Warn your family members about the pits or use pitted olives of good quality.

The salad tastes freshest if you add the tomatoes and lettuce a short time before serving. You can cook and dress the potatoes and beans ahead, but they`ll taste better if you remove them from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before the meal. Use haricots verts if you like, but these thin beans take a little longer to prepare because there are more of them. If I`m in a hurry, I omit the potatoes and green beans, going back to the original Nicoise custom of including only the raw vegetables.

To intensify the taste of the tomatoes, some chefs sprinkle the cut tomatoes with salt and let them stand while preparing the other ingredients, then drain off the liquid that comes out of them before adding them to the salad. I skip this step to save time, but you can do it if your tomatoes seem watery and might need a bit of help.

Tuna packed in olive oil gives the tastiest result. You can find it at Italian groceries and gourmet shops. If you have water-packed tuna, you can spoon a little olive oil over it and let it marinate for a few minutes.

When you have fresh basil, cut a few leaves in slivers and sprinkle them over the salad. They`ll do wonders for the flavor.

3 medium boiling potatoes, unpeeled, halved

2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon water

Salt, freshly ground pepper

1/2 pound haricots verts or green beans, ends trimmed, halved

4 to 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 small mild onion, sliced crosswise very thin and separated into half-rings

2 cups baby lettuce mix or other tender lettuce

4 to 6 ripe but firm tomatoes, cut into thin wedges

6 ounces tuna, preferably in olive oil, left in large chunks

1/3 cup oil-cured black olives

8 to 12 anchovy fillets, soaked in cold water 10 minutes, drained and patted dry

2 to 3 hard-cooked eggs, quartered

Place potatoes in medium saucepan of salted water and bring to boil. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat or until tender but not falling apart, 20 minutes. Peel while still warm, slice and place in large bowl. Mix 1 tablespoon vinegar with 1 tablespoon water and pour over potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and mix gently.

Cook green beans, uncovered, in saucepan of boiling salted water over high heat until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Rinse with cold water and drain.

For dressing, whisk remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar with salt and pepper to taste in small bowl. Whisk in 3 tablespoons oil. Add beans and onion to potatoes. Spoon dressing over mixture and mix gently. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Make bed of lettuce in shallow serving dish. Spoon potato-bean mixture on top. Top with tomatoes and chunks of tuna. Spoon remaining 1 or 2 tablespoons oil over them. Garnish salad with olives, anchovy fillets and egg quarters. Serve cool or at room temperature. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

(Faye Levy is the author of ``30 Low-Fat Meals in 30 Minutes,`` Warner, 1995, and of the three-volume ``Fresh From France`` cookbook series, Dutton, 1987, 1989 and 1990.)

(c) 2000, Faye Levy. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: Faye Levy