Salmon Nicoise Salad

Last Year's Post:  Muffuletta Sandwiches
Two Years Ago:    Chicken with Fresh Cherry Salsa

Nicoise refers to something from Nice, France.  In this case, it refers to a famous main-dish salad typically made with tuna, green beans, potatoes and eggs.  Salmon is a relatively common substitute and I wanted to use it here for two reasons:  fresh wild salmon is in season right now, and salmon has lower mercury levels than tuna.  Plus, salmon is really good for you along with the green beans, potatoes and olives.  Fresh salmon is preferable to frozen, and wild-caught is better than farmed.  Buy the best quality fish you can find - it really does make a difference.

This is a fabulous and pretty main dish salad suitable for company, and it's easy to make because you can do all the cooking in advance - all that happens at the last minute is assembly.  That makes it perfect for a summer meal.

There are four ingredients that you might consider a little fancy-schmancy, but they're worth it.  The first is haricot verts, or small French green beans.  You'll often find them pre-packaged as "French green beans" at the grocery store.  If you can't find them, use regular green beans.

The second is tiny multi-colored potatoes, which can be found pre-packaged in most stores these days.  They're really cute but if you can't find them use the tiniest potatoes you can find.

Frisee is a light green lacy lettuce that's very pretty (on the right in the picture below).  You can find it in some grocery stores or natural foods stores.  I found the red variety in a plastic container with three other types of lettuce in my local store and thought the combination of the two would be pretty, but you could always just use a bag of spring mix lettuce instead.

And finally, Nicoise olives are slightly smaller than their more common Greek cousin, kalamatas, but you can use kalamatas in a pinch - the taste is fairly similar.

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Salmon Nicoise

Serves 4

Note:  to make ahead, make the vinaigrette and refrigerate.  Cook the salmon, eggs, beans, and potatoes and refrigerate covered separately.

For the vinaigrette:

½ medium shallot, diced

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1-2 mashed anchovy fillets or anchovy paste, optional

12 ounces skin-on salmon fillet, preferably fresh and wild caught

Olive oil, for brushing

Salt and pepper

4 eggs, room temperature

6 ounces haricot verts (thin French green beans), trimmed

12 ounces tiny multi-colored potatoes

6 cups frisee or other lettuce

1/3 nicoise olives, pitted

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained

For the vinaigrette, combine all ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously.  Alternately, add all ingredients except olive oil to a small bowl, then whisk olive oil in slowly.  Taste vinaigrette and adjust seasonings.

Season the salmon by brushing with olive oil and sprinkling with salt and pepper.  Grill on an outdoor grill or indoor grill pan over medium-high heat for 4 minutes on the first side and approximately 3 minutes on the second side, until the internal temperature reaches 140d.  Remove from heat and let rest.  Remove the skin.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil, then gently submerge the eggs.  Boil for 9 minutes, then remove and immediately place in an ice bath.  Add the green beans to the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and place in the ice bath with the eggs.  When cold, remove the eggs and beans from the ice bath and pat dry.  Finally, add the potatoes to the boiling water and cook for 15-20 minutes until fork-tender.  Remove, drain, and let cool.

When ready to serve, divide the lettuce between four plates.  Break the salmon into large flakes and place in a pile on each plate.  Cut the potatoes in half (or thirds, if larger) and place next to the salmon.  Divide the haricot verts and olive between plates.  Shell the eggs and slice or cut in half, and place on each plate.  Scatter the capers on top of each salad, drizzle with vinaigrette, and serve with any remaining vinaigrette passed separately.

Linguini alla Puttanesca

Last Year's Post:Chocolate Turnovers

Whoa.  This recipe probably should be rated "R" for Adult Content. It may look innocent but it's not.  Puttanesca (poo-tah-nes-kah) actually comes from the Italian word for harlot, if that tells you anything. If you're one of those people who thinks ketchup is a spice you probably should stop right here and check out last year's post instead at the link above this paragraph (chocolate turnovers, yum).  But if you like big, bold flavors and a little spice in your life, this one's for you.  This dish makes you sit up straight and pay attention - just the thing to shake you out of the mid-winter doldrums.

The big, bold flavors come from garlic, olives, capers and anchovy paste.  Anchovy paste?  Yup.  Don't be afraid, the sauce doesn't taste fishy but the anchovies add a pungent note.  No one will even know they are there.  Still, opening a can of oily little fish can be relatively disgusting so anchovy paste is a much better solution.  You'll find it next to the canned anchovies in the grocery aisle.

You will smell anchovies when you first put the paste into the pan, but don't panic.  The smell goes away as soon as you put the tomatoes in 30 seconds later.  Just don't let any timid family members into the kitchen during that phase.

The spiciness in the recipe comes from crushed red pepper flakes.  1/4 teaspoon might not seem like much, but all I can tell you is that my lips were tingling for five minutes after I was done eating (The Lawyer was measuring things at this point while I was still chopping, and I suspect his 1/4 teaspoon was on the heaping side).  It's not hot enough to make you sweat - if you're one of those strange people who actually like to sweat while you eat you could always add more red pepper.  But I usually like to make a recipe according to the directions before I start messing with it.  My perception of how hot something is will not be the same as yours.  One last thought about chopping - there's a fair amount involved in this recipe so if you're making it by yourself I suggest doing the prep work before you actually start cooking.  It'll make things simpler.

A few teaspoons of sun-dried tomatoes add depth of flavor to the sauce in addition to turning it a darker, more beautiful red.

When you add the olives, capers and herbs the sauce gets even prettier.

This is a meatless meal, but you'll never miss the meat.  I like to go meatless for dinner once or twice per week, especially if I had some sort of meat at lunch. The trick is to make the flavors interesting enough that you don't miss the protein.  Trust me that this meal fits the bill.  Serve it with fresh crusty bread and a glass of wine, and you're good to go.

click here for a printable recipe

Linguini alla Puttanesca

serves 6-8

1 lb dry linguini

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic

1 teaspoon anchovy paste

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes with juice

2 tablespoons oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, minced

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives, slivered

3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons capers, drained

¼ teaspoon salt

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

For the pasta, bring a large pot of water (salted if you prefer) to a boil over high heat. 

Meanwhile, heat a large sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the olive oil, garlic, anchovy paste and red pepper flakes.  Stir, cooking for 30 seconds.  Add the tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, brown sugar, and vinegar; stir to combine.  Simmer sauce until slightly reduced, 10-15 minutes.  

Meanwhile, add linguini to the boiling water and stir.  Cook pasta as directed on the package.  Before draining, remove ¼ cup cooking liquid to thin the sauce if it looks too thick.

Finish the sauce by stirring in the olives, herbs, capers and salt.  Thin with pasta water if the sauce seems too thick.  Transfer the sauce and pasta to a large bowl and toss until the pasta is evenly coated with sauce.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Pan Bagnat

Sandwiches have always been one of my favorite foods.  They've become even more popular recently with the proliferation of food trucks serving a wide variety of hand-held foods from around the globe.   I've tried to broaden my horizons by trying  some of the great and famous sandwiches of the world.  As my first choice in a new occasional series of famous sandwiches, I chose the Pan Bagnat which is the specialty of Nice, France.  It incorporates many of the flavors of a Nicoise Salad (also a specialty of Nice) into a tuna sandwich that's completely different from your normal tuna/mayo mixture.  The Pan Bagnat has no mayo - it has an olive oil vinaigrette instead - and has lots of vegetables in addition to tuna and hard boiled eggs.  Everything is placed in crusty french rolls or baguettes and allowed sit for several hours before eating so the juices soak into and soften the bread, the onions can mellow and the flavors meld together.

I chose the Pan Bagnat for several reasons.  First, I love tuna sandwiches.  Second, this sandwich is actually pretty healthy with Omega 3's in the olive oil plus all the veggies.  Finally, it's picnic season and this sandwich is just perfect for picnics since it has no mayo and should be made well in advance of eating. (I just love a picnic dinner at a concert in the park.  If you're quiet about it you can even sneak in a bottle of wine to go with the sandwiches.) If you have a picnic for two, use individual french rolls or mini-baguettes as I did.  If you have more people, use a full-size baguette and cut into pieces prior to serving.

The only drawback to this sandwich is the name.  I took French in high school with limited results, but one thing I noticed was that French words sometimes have letters that are completely absent in the pronunciation.  For example, you pronounce Pan Bagnat as pahn bahn-yah.  So what happend to the "g" and the "t"?  French is sneaky that way.  If nothing else, you can impress people with your pronunciation the next time you order one in a bistro.

A note about the tuna - water pack or oil pack?  Yes, water pack tuna is lower in calories.  It also has less taste.  My personal preference is to use oil pack tuna for special recipes where tuna is a star and use water pack for everything else.  I used oil pack tuna here but the choice is up to you.

* * click here for a printable recipe version * *

Pan Bagnat
Makes 4 servings


Note: you may find it easier to place the ingredients in the top half of the bread rather than the bottom half because the top is typically deeper and will cradle them better.


1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 baguette or 4 french rolls
½ English cucumber, sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
12 ounces canned tuna packed in oil or water, drained and crumbled
8 basil leaves
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
½ cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced


Whisk together the red wine vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Gradually add the olive oil while whisking to form an emulsion. Add the cucumbers to the vinaigrette and toss to coat. Set aside.

Slice the baguette (or rolls) horizontally into 2 pieces. Tear out some of the soft bread in the center of each side, being careful not to tear the crust. Place the ingredients on one half of the bread in the following order: half the cucumbers, tomato, onion, tuna, basil, eggs, olives, then the other half of the cucumber slices. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the vegetables, top with the second piece of bread, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours or refrigerate for up to 6 hours.

Cut the baguette into four pieces and serve.

Tiny Pizzas (Lilliputian Food Part 1)

I've had this strange fascination with tiny food (as in miniature versions of normal food) ever since I read an article about creating a counterpart to sliders by using little teeny weenies and making your own teeny buns for miniature hot dogs.  Although I don't like those little weiners (I think they're called Lil Smokies) I liked the idea.  After further research I learned that I could make tiny tacos, reubens, pizzas, and other Lilliputian foods that are perfect finger food for parties.  Someday I want to throw a party where all the food is miniaturized - I think that would be hilarious.

Do you have a New Years or football party in your near future?  I've never understood why so many people serve chili or regular pizza slices for football parties -messy, drippy food precariously transported from plate to mouth by a person whose eyes are glued to a TV screen.  I think the whole tradition must have been started by a carpet cleaning company.  In contrast, tiny food is securely transported with two fingers and whap! Into the mouth in its entirety.  Perfect, not to mention cute as the dickens. 

I thought I would start my erratic and occasional series on Lilliputian Food with tiny pizzas because everybody likes pizza and they're incredibly easy to make.

Although this recipe calls for using a store-bought crust, you could certainly use a refrigerated crust or make your own.  Just be sure to partially bake it first.  If you decide to use a store-bought crust, buy the thinnest one you can find so the tiny pizzas look right proportionally and the crust gets crisp.  I use sun-dried tomato pesto in place of pizza sauce because I like the additional boost of flavor but either one will work fine. The reason to chop the cheeses if they're in long shreds is because they're hard to drape on the tiny pizzas and make a mess.  Smaller pieces are much easier to handle.

You'll need a 2-inch round cookie cutter, which is easy to find at any kitchen gadget store or Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I bought a set of various sizes a while back and they come in handy.

Watch the pizzas closely because they bake fast - a minute or two will make a big difference once the cheese starts to melt because they're small and temperature is high.


* * click here for a printable recipe * *


Tiny Pizzas
Makes about 32 mini pizzas

2 large store-bought pre-baked thin crust pizza shells
Small jar of pizza sauce or sun-dried tomato pesto
Small package shredded pizza cheese blend – chopped in small pieces
Grated or shredded parmesan cheese – chopped into small pieces if needed
Pepperoni - optional
Pitted black or green olives – sliced in half lengthwise
Fresh basil – smallest whole leaves


Preheat the oven to 450d.

Cut rounds from pizza crust using a 2-inch round cutter, avoiding the thick crust edge. 

Top the pizza rounds with sauce and cover with pizza cheese blend. Top with pepperoni and an olive half.  As you can see, I made some with pepperoni and some without.  Choices, choices.

Place on a baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown, approximately 8 minutes. (Watch closely so the cheese doesn’t get too dark.)

Remove from the oven and sprinkle lightly with parmesan. Place a very small basil leaf on each and plate for serving.