You arrange ripe tomatoes, eggs, tuna in oil, anchovies, olives, raw pepper and cucumber on a platter — a composition, not a toss. The dressing is olive oil and nothing else. It should look like a market stall, each thing in its own territory, the tomatoes at the centre.
In Nice this salad is a claim of place. Potatoes and cooked beans are a Parisian interpolation; the old city version keeps the vegetables raw. Jacques Médecin's prescriptions are fussy, but he was right about the beans.
Do not jumble it. Dress generously and bring the platter as it is. Use Provençal oil if you have it, and olives that are small and black. A Côtes de Provence rosé is not decoration.
Method
- 01
Lower the eggs into boiling water and cook them for 9 minutes — you want a yolk that is set but still a little creamy at the very center, not chalky. Cool them under running water so the shells come away cleanly, then peel and quarter. A good egg is half the salad. Don't skip the cooling; a hot egg on a tomato is a muddle.
- 02
Cut the tomatoes into generous wedges — they are the center of the plate, so choose ripe ones that smell of themselves. Slice the pepper and cucumber into strips, and the spring onions into thin rounds. Everything should be raw and crisp, as it is in Nice; this is a composition of the market, not a cooked salad. Keep the pieces distinct; you will arrange them, not toss them.
- 03
Arrange the vegetables on a platter with the tuna, the anchovy fillets, the olives, the artichoke hearts and the quartered eggs. Give each thing its own territory; the eye should read the market stall. Tear the basil over the top at the last moment, so it stays fragrant. Do not pile it; a Niçoise that looks like a toss has already failed.
- 04
Dress generously with the olive oil, salt and pepper — Provençal oil if you have it, and enough of it that the tomatoes glisten. Do not toss the salad into a jumble; the dressing should settle into the crevices on its own. Bring the platter to the table as it is. A little extra oil at the side is not a crime.
