My Ultimate Salad Niçoise with tuna, olives, eggs and anchovies: I’ve been obsessed with this classic French recipe even before I’d been to Nice. The ingredient combination never fails to conjure up the taste of Mediterranean summer holidays – sun-warmed tomatoes, the hum of cicadas and long lunches near the sea.
Updated 2026 · Originally commissioned in collaboration with James Villas (2016).
Nice: The home of Salad Niçoise
Nice lies on the French Mediterranean coast around thirty minutes’ train ride from Italy; the cuisine and architecture have a distinctly Italian feel. As a dish native to Nice, it’s not surprising that Salad Niçoise features quality fresh ingredients, simply assembled, and with big flavours.
The primary colours of classic Salad Niçoise – red tomato, green beans and leaves and yellow egg yolk all contrast with the deep cobalt blue of the Mediterranean. They serve big salads in France. French menus fool you into thinking salads are a starter, but generally a French salad is a loaded affair. With layers of flavour and texture, add crusty baguette and wine – and you’ve got a feast.
My experience of Nice
Before visiting Nice, I had never seen a sea so blue; no wonder Nice resident, the artist Henri Matisse filled his collage works with that same deep blue.
Nice, to me, is watching Mediterranean sunsets on the pebbled beach, it’s the gentle hum of diners at restaurants in the old town, it’s raising your glass of rosé wine to catch the evening sun.
I first went to Nice with my husband around the milennium. We visited 3-4 times over five years but then a long gap until 2023 – when we were aghast we’d left it so long to return! For years, a Raoul Dufy print of Nice’s Promenade des Anglais has hung in our bedroom; the deep strokes of cobalt blue greet us each morning, evoking happy holidays on the Côte d’Azur.
The bountiful markets of France offer huge incentive to cook their fresh ingredients “at home”. Nice’s Cours Saleya is home to a colourful market where the Niçoise can pick up fresh fruit and vegetables most days of the week.
Choosing Tuna for Salad Niçoise: Fresh or Canned?
Tuna is the back bone of Salad Niçoise and if you’re near a fishmonger, you cannot beat fresh. Better still, buy red-fleshed tuna fillets from the fish counter rather than shrink-wrapped tuna in a plastic tray.
That said, tinned tuna can be more convenient and some argue it is more authentic. A decent quality canned – or bottled – tuna in olive oil has a smooth texture and deep summery flavour that may even improve with age. So my choice would be either fresh tuna OR a good quality canned version in olive oil – not tinned in brine. It doesn’t need to be a super pricy one like Ortiz – although their pretty cans will transport you to sunnier climes.
Whether you choose fresh or canned tuna, you want the fishy chunks to stay in large pieces rather than breaking up into tiny flakes. as cheaper canned tuna is wont to do. These fresh tuna steaks above were fried for 3 minutes on each side, then broken into chunks with a fork.
If you visit a French supermarket fish counter in the evening, they may have fresh tuna at reduced prices. On those lucky occasions, I buy twice as much, cook the lot in one go and serve leftovers cold the next day.
Which anchovies to use in Salad Niçoise
Whether to use anchovies in Salad Niçoise or not can be a moot point. Some French chefs use them in place of tuna; purists will argue you should pick either anchovy OR tuna. I say “phooey” to that: I may not be fussy which preparation of fish goes into my Salad Niçoise but I feel shortchanged if the combination does not include tuna and anchovies together.
Anchovies are most familiar tinned; brown salty oily slivers with fragile bones that melt in the mouth. Alternatively, you might track down fleshy silver fillets vacuum packed with vinaigrette. The latter are more similar to roll-mop herrings whilst the former are saltier.
I love both types of anchovy, but I am more likely to have the small rectangular cans to hand. Should you not require the whole can, the remaining fish will melt down beautifully in a puttanesca pasta sauce. I really ought to publish my recipe for that too.
Should you put potatoes in Salad Niçoise?
Again there is some dispute about whether to include potatoes in Salad Niçoise. Personally, I think it depends on how you’re serving it. For dinner, I prefer including potatoes whilst they’re still warm, turning it into a more substantial meal. At lunchtime, I can happily leave them out – especially there’s some fresh baguette to rip up and mop up the dressing.
With so many ingredients, Salad Niçoise has a pebble soup quality: leave components out, add another and you can still call it Salad Niçoise. I can cope with potatoes not being there, and appreciate the tuna-versus-anchovy argument, but I think of it as a kind of culinary Jenga. Remove ingredients as you wish – but beware of taking away so many that it falls down.
Can Salad Niçoise be prepared ahead?
Everything that is cooked in a Salad Niçoise can be cooked ahead; components such as tomatoes and boiled eggs can be cut up in advance. You can drain olives, capers and anchovies, chopping them ready for later. That said, I do not recommend adding the salad leaves and dressing until the last moment.
If, like me, you enjoy warm potatoes in your salad, you’ll prefer to boil these at the last minute and assemble everything just before serving. Even with a little last moment cooking, it’s relaxed enough to simmer in the background as you sip that glass of rosé wine.
Can you store Salad Niçoise?
If you have any Salad Niçoise left over, you can box it up and chill to serve the next day – it makes a tasty packed lunch. I would however, recommend pulling out the green salad leaves and tossing in a few fresh ones when re-serving.
If you make Salad Niçoise specifically for a packed lunch, make sure the potatoes and green beans are absolutely cold before boxing. I’d also recommend putting the vinaigrette dressing in a small container to pour over just before eating.
Pain Bagnat – the Salad Niçoise sandwich
You can also serve Salad Niçoise, definitely with dressing – but not potatoes – in a crusty roll. Doing so is another Niçoise classic: pain bagnat. These Salad Niçoise-filled sandwiches were originally eaten by fishermen for convenience.
Translating as “bathed bread”, a reference to the dressing soaking the bread, pain bagnats are a common sight on sandwich counters around Nice. An Italian-style ciabatta roll is more commonly used for pain bagnat than French baguette.
Ultimate Salad Niçoise
Ingredients
- 400 g fresh tuna steaks
- olive oil to try and make dressing
- balsamic vinegar
- 2-4 hard boiled eggs
- 250 g new potatoes
- 1 tbsp capers
- 40 g anchovies
- 12 pitted black olives
- 2 big tomatoes sliced
- 1/2 red onion sliced into thin half moons
- 100 g green beans topped and tailed
- Seasoning
- fresh salad leaves
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the tuna steaks for around 3 minutes each side until cooked through. Remove from the pan and flake into pieces.
- Meanwhile in separate pans boil the new potatoes until cooked and boil the eggs until they'll be just beyond a soft boil - admittedly I'm very bad at gauging this.
- Lightly cook the beans in a third pan.
- Drain the cooked potatoes and beans, peel the hard boiled eggs and cut into halves or quarters.
- In a large bowl arrange all of the ingredients before drizzing with a mix of oil and balsamic vinegar beaten together. Grind with black pepper and serve preferably outdoors!
If you like this summery recipe try also my Chilli Mussels Pennoni (Giant Pasta).
I love a Nicoise salad. I’ll be trying this one.
Beautiful recipe, lovely story and also I want to go on holiday now x