Here's what Julia Childs had to say about it: Of all main-course salads, the Niçoise is my all-time favorite, with its fresh butter-lettuce foundation; its carefully cooked, beautifully green green beans; its colorful contrast of halved hard-boiled eggs, ripe red tomatoes, and black olives; all fortified by chunks of tuna and freshly opened anchovies. It's a perfect luncheon dish, to my mind, winter, summer, spring, and fall — an inspired combination that pleases everyone.
Ingredients
1 large head Boston or butter lettuce leaves, washed and dried
1 pound green beans, cooked and "shocked" in ice water to stop cooking and keep beans bright green
1-1/2 tablespoons minced shallots
½ to ⅔ cup basic vinaigrette *
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 or 4 ripe red tomatoes, cut into wedges (or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved)
3 or 4 "boiling" potatoes, either red or white, peeled, sliced, and cooked
Two 3-ounce cans chunk tuna, preferably packed in olive oil (we use the Genova brand, definitely worth it)
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 freshly opened can of flat anchovy fillets
⅓ cup small black Niçoise-type olives
2 to 3 tablespoons capers
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Instructions
Arrange the lettuce leaves on a large platter or in a shallow bowl. Shortly before serving, toss the beans with the shallots, spoonfuls of vinaigrette, and salt and pepper.
Baste the tomatoes with a spoonful of vinaigrette. Place the potatoes in the center of the platter and arrange a mound of beans at either end, with tomatoes and small mounds of tuna at strategic intervals. Ring the platter with halves of hard-boiled eggs, sunny side up, and curl an anchovy on top of each.
Spoon more vinaigrette over all; scatter on olives, capers, and parsley, and serve.
Yield
Recipe by Food and Friendship at https://www.foodandfriendshipsantabarbara.com/2012/05/20/amuse-bouche-2/