One of my favorite summer dishes is my version of Salade Nicoise, the French salad made with tuna, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes and green beans. It doesn’t require much cooking, it’s served cold, and most importantly, everyone in our family likes it.
Salade Nicoise is an ideal dish for August.
The French original is a composed salad, with the various components kept more separate. Mine is a bit more of a mishmash, with potato salad sitting atop greens and tuna salad atop that.
I generally make my own vinaigrette, flavored with a bit of garlic and mustard, but a good bottled vinaigrette or Caesar-style dressing would work just fine.
It is a bit of work to prepare all the ingredients, but you can prepare them in advance and assemble the salad just before serving.
The recipe traditionally calls for canned tuna, but for a really nice flavor, you can substitute grilled fresh tuna, cut into chunks.
Ginger’s Salade Nicoise
Makes 4 to 6 main-course servings
1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
2 handfuls torn lettuce or mixed greens (optional)
1 large tomato, cut into 8 wedges
4 hard-boiled eggs, cut in half lengthwise
8 to 12 black olives (preferably Nicoise style)
2 (6-ounce) cans tuna packed in water, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Vinaigrette (homemade or bottled)
Parsley and/or capers for garnish
Place the potatoes in a pan with cold water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, or just until they can be pierced easily with a fork. Rinse under cold water. When cool, peel potatoes and cut into chunks or slices. Set aside.
Meanwhile, cook green beans in boiling water until tender-crisp, about 7 to 8 minutes. Rinse under cold water, drain and set aside.
Just before serving, assemble salad: Make a bed of the lettuce or greens on a large platter. Top with green beans, arranged end to end around the edges of the lettuce. Arrange tomato wedges, eggs and olives decoratively around edge of platter.
Toss the potatoes with vinaigrette, salt and pepper to taste. Mound in the middle of the platter.
Moisten the tuna with a little of the vinaigrette and mound it on top of the potatoes.
Scatter chopped parsley or capers over salad.
Serve immediately.
You pretty much gotta be over 45 to remember who Dean Martin was. (For the youngsters among you, Dean Martin, born Dino Crocetti, was an Italian-American singer, actor and comedian who was very popular from the ’50s through the ’70s. He was part of the Hollywood “Rat Pack” that also included such luminaries as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.)
Garlicky Chicken and Fresh Tomatoes
Sometimes the simplest, last-minute meals turn out better than something you’ve planned for ages. I was making a healthy dinner for my Mom and a couple of my siblings last weekend. I had chicken breasts, some cornmeal, and some fresh Roma (plum) tomatoes from my patio container garden.
Feeling in a Mediterranean mood, I first cooked up some polenta, which seemed like a nice change from pasta. Then I cooked the chicken breasts with olive oil, lots of garlic, some onion, some tomato sauce, and fresh garden tomatoes. It tasted divine and was a big hit.
Here’s a recipe, of sorts (I didn’t really measure anything). Feel free to improvise. You could add chopped fresh parsley, chopped black olives, or some chopped bell peppers to the chicken. And of course, you can save a lot of time by buying ready-made polenta, or by substituting pasta.
Chicken and Fresh Tomatoes on Polenta
Makes 4 to 6 servings
4 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole-grain cornmeal (coarse or medium grind)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or extra-virgin olive oil
Chicken:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
About 1 cup coarsely chopped onion
4 to 5 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut in half crosswise
About 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or use some fresh herbs if you have them on hand
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
3 to 4 fresh plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Salt (optional) and pepper to taste
To make the polenta: Bring 3 cups of the water and salt to a boil. Add the remaining cup of water (cold) to the cornmeal and stir to moisten it. (This step is optional, but helps keep the cornmeal from lumping when you add it to the boiling water. If you prefer to skip this step, bring all 4 cups of water to a boil.) Gradually stir the cornmeal into the boiling water. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, for about 30 minutes, or until the polenta is thickened but still creamy and comes cleanly away from the sides of the pan when you stir it. If the polenta begins to thicken too much, add a little more hot water. Polenta doesn’t need to be served hot, so you can set it aside while you make the chicken.
To prepare the chicken: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion. Cook over medium-high heat until translucent, then add the garlic and cook a few seconds until fragrant. With a slotted spoon, remove the onions and garlic to a plate.
Add the chicken to the skillet and brown well on both sides. Then add the onions and garlic back to the pan, along with the tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. Cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in the chopped fresh tomatoes and season with salt (if desired) and pepper.
Serve the chicken over scoops of the polenta.