SALAD
100g/3½oz new potatoes
3 eggs
100g/¾ cup French beans
150g/5½oz ripe tomatoes
½ cucumber, deseeded
One Little Gem/Bibb lettuce
50g/½ cup black olives, pitted
2tbsp capers
6 anchovy fillets
DRESSING
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1tbsp red wine vinegar
1tsp Dijon mustard
3tbsp olive oil
Black pepper
Late in my teens, I travelled to France with a friend and her mum. We spent a week bustling about a freezing Paris, and then slowly travelled down the length of the country, ending up in Nice. After a couple of weeks of frost and ice, our days on the south coast felt like an entirely different world. We ordered salade niçoise, surprised that it arrived with plenty of sharp, salty anchovies, but without the tuna I had come to expect. It was still the middle of winter, but in Nice, in our t-shirts and jeans, eating at a table outside, it felt like the height of spring.
Serves 2
1. Bring the new potatoes to the boil in a saucepan of salted water, and cook for 10 minutes until tender. Bring a second saucepan to the boil and add the eggs. Boil for 7 minutes, then run under cold water, and set aside. Cook the beans in boiling water for 3 minutes and then blanch in cold water.
2. Cut a cross in the base of each tomato, and cover with boiling water. Leave for a minute, then remove and plunge into ice-cold water. Peel off the skins, slice into chunks and remove the seeds. Slice the cucumber and lettuce. Toss the potatoes, beans, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, olives, and capers together in a bowl.
3. Put the dressing ingredients in a jar, and shake vigorously to emulsify. Pour over the salad, and toss together. Divide between 2 plates. Peel the eggs, and slice into wedges. Top each salad with wedges of egg, and whole anchovy fillets.