Famous mixed salad from Nice, located in the South of France

Ingredients

• 6-8 pieces young of tender Dutch herring fillets
• 1 head of lettuce (or, even better, the same quantity of hearts of lettuce)
• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• 1 red hull of paprika
• 1 green hull of paprika
• 1 minced onion
• 10-15 capers
• 12 seedless black olives
• 300g butter beans
• 1 young, tender leek
• 2 small courgettes or 1 green cucumber
• 1 small bowl of cherry tomatoes
• 1-2 minced cloves of garlic
• 4-5 potatoes in their skin, sliced
• a little wine vinegar and olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

1. To begin, make a thick vinaigrette by mixing the minced onion, garlic, wine vinegar, salt and pepper, a bit of sugar and a little mustard (optional). Whisk in the oil to this mixture.
2. Cut the herring fillets on a bias into bite-sized pieces of approx. 3 cm.
3. Clean the green lettuce and refresh it in cold water before you dry it very carefully with kitchen towel.
4. Wash the butter beans and blanch them in salted water then let them chill.
5. Brush the paprika and cut it into thin stripes. Likewise the leek.
6. Peel and remove the rind and the seeds of the courgettes or the cucumber. Cut them into strips.
7. Blanche the cherry tomatoes very briefly in boiling water and chill them quickly in iced water. Then peel them and cut them into halves.
8. Brush the vinaigrette onto the potatoes while they are still warm.
9. Sauté them for a minute of two.
10. Add the rest of the vegetables and let marinate.
11. Serve on leaves of lettuce.
12. Cut each egg into six equal pieces. Garnish the salad with the pieces of egg and herring fillet.

Serving suggestion

• I like to complete my salade niçoise with hearts of artichokes.
• Serve with toasted baguette.