Summery Salad Nicoise

Vittorio, our friend from Italy was coming for dinner on Monday and would stay overnight.  I was working on Monday and wondered if I had the time to get a satisfying dinner on the table.  But it was horribly hot, in the 90s, and the thought of leaving our air conditioned place to go back outside to a restaurant, wasn't appealing.  With a little advance planning I came up with my version of a Salad Nicoise.  It was a hit- cool, tasty and perfect for a scorching day.

I cooked the green beans and potatoes the day before and bought a jar of good quality tuna and a can of anchovies to have on hand. I should have also made a few hard boiled eggs but forgot to do that.  With good bread and chilled white wine we had a fine meal.

1 lb. green beans or haricot verts, trimmed
1 lb. potatoes, sliced
4 scallions, white parts finely chopped
vinaigrette dressing
1 jar tuna in olive oil from Italy or Spain, drained
1 can anchovies, drained
4 hardboiled eggs, halved
1 tsp. capers
cherry tomatoes or beefsteak tomato cut into chunks

Cook the green beans and potatoes in separate pots of boiling water. When the beans are bright green and still have a bit of a snap, drain and rinse with cool water.  When the potatoes are tender but not falling apart, drain.  Dry the veggies off and while still warm combine them in a bowl.  Add the scallions and toss with vinaigrette dressing.

Put the dressed vegetables on a platter.  Add chunks of tuna, the anchovies and the halved eggs on top of the veggies.  Sprinkle with capers and put cherry tomatoes or tomato chunks around the edge of the platter.

Serves 4