I’m not usually a fan of deconstructed dishes as the disassembled elements rarely add up to a coherent whole. This, I think, is an exception. It’s essentially a deconstructed Salade Niçoise but made with a tonnato sauce. Yes, you read that correctly, tonnato, or tuna, not tomato.

It’s a tuna mayonnaise, which is traditionally served with veal, but it works brilliantly in this summery salad, perfect for those hot and steamy days (we live in hope) when the mere idea of turning on the oven makes you break into a sweat.

You need to cook a couple of the elements, although it’s merely a matter of switching on the hob for a short time. But do, please, make the effort of whipping up a real mayonnaise rather than reaching for a jar because this dish stands or falls on the quality of the mayo.

This makes enough tonnato sauce for two or three – please increase the quantities if you are catering for larger numbers. My preference is for the tuna sold in jars in oil, which is more expensive than the tinned stuff, but of higher quality.

For the salad, I used new potatoes, French beans, raw peas, cucumber, hard boiled eggs, black olives and smoked anchovies in addition to the tuna, but you can mix and match according to personal preference and what you have handy. Thin wedges of baby gem lettuce are good.

The late (and controversial) ex-mayor of Nice, Jacques Médecin, famously had strong feelings about what should and should not be included in a Niçoise, but the salad has by now been through so many incarnations I think it’s safe to use whatever makes you happy. And if you dislike a Niçoise, make the sauce anyway, because it’s fabulous with lots of summery, salady things.

MORE RECIPES FROM MRS PORTLY'S KITCHEN

Mrs Portly's Kitchen Fried Halloumi with Salsa Verde

Mrs Portly's Kitchen Med-Style Suffolk Bass with Pangrattato

Mrs Portly's Kitchen Ipswich almond tarts

 

Tonnato Sauce. Tonnato Sauce. (Image: Linda Duffin)

Summer salad with tonnato sauce

Ingredients:

1 x 220g jar of tuna in oil

4 anchovy fillets

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 ½ tbsp capers (I use the brined ones but rinse them if yours are packed in salt)

2 egg yolks

1 ½ tsp Dijon mustard

The juice of ½ a lemon

1 ½ tbsp red wine or sherry vinegar

The oil from the anchovies, made up to 125ml with olive or sunflower oil

Plus: Cooked new potatoes and French beans, black olives, ripe tomatoes, cucumber, hard boiled eggs, more anchovies (see introduction)

Method:

Cook and cool the potatoes, beans and eggs before embarking on the sauce, although you can prepare and refrigerate it in advance if that suits your timings better.

To make the sauce, drain the tuna, reserving the oil, and set aside a few good flakes as a garnish. Using a food processor or stick blender, put the anchovy fillets, crushed garlic and capers in the jug and whizz until they’re chopped finely.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the reserved tuna and oil. Blend until smooth. Now add the oil, a few drops at a time to start with, until the mixture begins to thicken, then bit by bit add the rest.

Once you’ve made the sauce, cut, chop or slice the remaining salad ingredients you are using. Spread the tonnato sauce on a serving plate, or individual plates, and arrange the rest of the ingredients on top, I favour neat piles but if you prefer the jumbled approach, go wild. Garnish with the reserved tuna flakes, and more anchovies fillets, if you like.

 

ABOUT LINDA

Linda Duffin is a food writer who operates a cookery school, Mrs Portly’s Kitchen Classes, from her beautiful Tudor home in mid-Suffolk. Students are invited, in season, to plunder the kitchen garden and orchard in her two-and-a-half-acre garden for ingredients and can also book a stay as part of a course. Linda works closely with local producers, some of whom join her in teaching classes in their specialist areas. The Mrs Portly name, Linda says, started as a joke but she has grown into it. mrsportlyskitchen.co.uk