Delia Smith’s salad niçoise layers skinned tomatoes, rocket, cucumber, sliced new potatoes, French beans and shallots in a big bowl with a herb vinaigrette, then tops them with chunks of tinned tuna, quartered eggs, a criss-cross of anchovies and black olives. It makes a light lunch for 4 to 6 in a little over an hour.
She first printed it in her Complete Cookery Course as a favourite summer lunch at home, served with a hot herb and garlic loaf, then reworked it for her second How to Cook book in 1999. That’s the version on the card, and her Fish Collection reprinted it in 2003 without a change.
What makes it work is the dressing going in a little at a time as you build the layers, so every forkful is seasoned rather than just the top. Delia waves away the restaurant versions with salmon or char-grilled tuna, saying “the original reigns supreme”, and with warm crusty bread it’s a meal of salty, sharp and bright flavours on one plate.
Delia Smith’s Salade Niçoise
Course: SaladsCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Easy4
servings40
minutes25
minutes545
kcalThe salade niçoise from How to Cook Book Two (1999), page 161, with her herb vinaigrette written in full. The ingredients are tinned tuna, eggs, anchovies, olives, rocket and summer vegetables, enough for 4 to 6 as a light lunch.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
350g (12oz) red ripe tomatoes
110g (4oz) rocket, stalks removed
½ small young cucumber, cut into smallish chunks
450g (1lb) new potatoes
110g (4oz) French beans, topped and tailed
4 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
2 x 200g tins tuna in oil, well drained
2 large eggs
50g (2oz) anchovy fillets
50g (2oz) black olives
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- For the vinaigrette:
1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 rounded teaspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped herbs, such as chives, tarragon, parsley, basil, chervil or mint
freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Cook: Boil the new potatoes in salted water until a skewer slides in, about 20 minutes, then cool and slice them. Boil the beans in salted water for 4 to 6 minutes if they’re very thin, or 8 to 12 if larger, then drain and cool them.
- Eggs: Cover the eggs with cold water by 1cm, bring up to a simmer and cook for 7 minutes. Run the cold tap over them for a minute, leave them in cold water for 2 more, then peel and quarter them.
- Vinaigrette: Crush the sea salt to a powder in a pestle and mortar, then pound in the garlic until smooth. Work in the mustard powder, then the vinegar and some pepper until the salt dissolves, add the oil and stir in the herbs. Pour it into a screw-top jar.
- Tomatoes: Cover them with boiling water for 1 minute, drain and slip off the skins. Halve them, squeeze out the seeds over a plate and cut each half in two.
- Layer: Shake the dressing hard. In a large salad bowl, build up layers of tomatoes, rocket, cucumber, potatoes, beans and shallots, sprinkling over a little dressing as you go.
- Top: Add chunks of tuna and the egg quarters, lay the anchovies over in a criss-cross, then scatter on the olives and parsley and finish with the rest of the dressing. Serve fairly soon.
Notes
- The herb vinaigrette looks very thick in the jar, but it loosens once it meets the salad.
- If you can find them, fine French beans, sometimes sold as haricots verts, cook fastest and look the neatest here.
- Tuna in oil gives the richer flavour Delia asks for, so save tuna in spring water for other dishes.
FAQs
Tinned or fresh tuna?
Tinned, in oil, and Delia is firm about it. She knows smart restaurants serve niçoise with char-grilled tuna steaks or salmon, but she sticks with the classic.
Two 200g tins, well drained, is the amount (400g in her Fish Collection), just as in her winter tuna and white bean salad. Break it into chunks rather than flaking it fine, so it sits on top in proper pieces.
How long should I boil the eggs?
Seven minutes from simmering point if you want them cooked through, or 6 for a slightly soft centre. That’s the timing in the eggs chapter of her 1998 How to Cook, starting the eggs in cold water that covers them by 1cm.
Use eggs at least five days old, because just-laid ones are hard to peel. Cool them fast under the cold tap, as eggs left warm carry on cooking and get a grey-black ring round the yolk.
Should I use lettuce or rocket?
Either is right, as Delia herself has made it both ways. Her Complete Cookery Course lines the bowl with lettuce, and later she dropped it for rocket, noting that in Provence lettuce is used only sometimes.
That earlier version is lighter too, with a single tin of tuna, 110g of potatoes and a spoonful of chopped onion instead of shallots, and she peels the cucumber. I’d use rocket for its peppery bite, which is my own preference, but a crisp round lettuce works well.
Can I make it without tuna?
Yes, and Delia has a version of her own. The egg and anchovy salad in her Frugal Food uses 6 eggs, 450g of new potatoes and 110g of French beans tossed in vinaigrette, served on lettuce with anchovies and black olives on top.
It’s the same niçoise idea at a lower cost, with the extra eggs taking the place of the tuna. Chop the eggs roughly once they’re cold so they mix through the potatoes.
Can I get it ready ahead?
Partly, as the salad itself is best put together and served fairly soon. The potatoes, beans and eggs can be cooked and kept covered in the fridge for a few hours, and the dressing made in its jar, which is my own way of splitting the work.
Skin the tomatoes and build the layers only when you’re nearly ready to eat, so the rocket stays crisp. Give the jar one last hard shake before the dressing goes on.
