This simple but substantial summer salad is a crude reworking of a niçoise, with tinned sardine fillets serving admirably and sustainably in place of questionable tuna. All you need add is some lemon juice, salt and pepper. I like to use locally caught Cornish pilchards from The Pilchard Works, but any well-sourced sardines or pilchards will do. If you use whole sardines, rather than fillets, you might want to remove the bones.
Serves 4
500g small new or salad potatoes
200g French beans, trimmed
120g tin sardine fillets (or pilchard fillets) in olive oil
A good squeeze of lemon juice
A little extra virgin olive oil (if needed)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the potatoes into 2 or 3 pieces each. Put them into a saucepan, cover with water and add salt. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 6–10 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, cut the French beans into 3–4cm lengths and add to the pan for the last 3–5 minutes – they should still have a bit of crunch when cooked. Drain the potatoes and beans well and leave to cool until warm, or at room temperature.
Tip the sardines (or pilchards), with their oil, into a large bowl. Add some salt and pepper and the lemon juice, then use a fork to mash the sardines to a rough purée.
Tip the cooled potatoes and beans into the bowl with the sardines and toss thoroughly so the vegetables are well coated in the fishy dressing. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice and/or a little extra virgin olive oil as needed, then serve.
PLUS ONE Try stirring a handful of roughly chopped stoned black olives into the mix.
PLUS TWO A hard-boiled egg or two will add further to the salade niçoise effect.
SWAP If you can’t get French beans, this salad is also lovely with Little Gem lettuce hearts. You could shred the lettuce or just halve or quarter the hearts.