Wake up and smell the salade niçoise

The other day I woke up and realized: It's salade niçoise weather. I picked up some juicy-looking heirloom tomatoes, beautiful red butter lettuce, yellow peppers, haricots verts, potatoes, good Italian tuna packed in olive oil, anchovies, niçoise olives and a bottle of rosé.

Making it couldn't be easier. Boil the haricots verts in lots of salted water till they're crunchy-tender, drain and toss with some great olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Boil potatoes in their skins till tender, cool and peel, slice and dress them with sliced shallot or red onion, parsley, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Boil some eggs and slice them in half. Arrange lettuce on a platter and put the tuna, flaked, in the center. Arrange around it the haricots, potato salad, eggs, olives and sliced peppers. Slice the tomatoes, arrange them in the last spot, drizzle them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and lay the anchovies on top. (You might want to make up a little more vinaigrette to serve alongside.)

Fantastic with a glass of cool rosé.

-- Leslie Brenner

Photo by Leslie Brenner