A Fancy-ish $5 Friday- Salade Nicoise/Insalata Nizzardo

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog.  A bunch of us friends let you vicariously enjoy and maybe get inspired about food we eat. We will just pretend we are eating in a foreign country, OK?

Hi.  Cathy here with a meal for two for less than $5.  It's simple.

Today, I went to the cabinet and found the last two potatoes then found three eggs in the refrigerator, along with my ever present jar of anchovies and so went to the cabinets and found some basics.  I buy items on sale and hardly ever pay full price, so the total cost of ingredients is less than $5.

There are varying definitions of what a Salade Nicoise (or, the Italian, Insalata Nizzardo) is made of.  The main ingredients it should have are basically what is found fresh and available -potatoes, green beans, hard boiled eggs, olives and tuna.  It  does not necessarily include lettuce.  If you have lettuce, put it on the bottom of all of the ingredients. A simple dressing is 1/4 C oil with 2 Tbs vinegar, salt and pepper.

This salad is not  Puttanesca in nature-made of what is in the cabinet-however it is November and the garden is sparse.  I do keep dilled green beans in the can on hand specifically for this dish.  They taste good straight from the can.

The most expensive ingredient is the tuna.  I basically only buy solid tuna in oil, usually Tonono,  an Italian brand.  Sometimes people put seared tuna fillets on the plate. That makes it way more expensive, but good.

 

I had cooked and chilled some beets from the garden a few days ago and had roasted some of the last tomatoes from my garden to use in sauce...found those in the fridge also. I boiled and cooled the potatoes and eggs.

It is supposed to be a hot weekend.  This would be a refreshing outdoor meal.  I hope everyone has a nice weekend!

{Thanks JanFrederick!} 

Comments

[tina marie]

Looked like a good meal. :) I'm not a fan of Tuna... but I can more than likely make this dish for the Mister some time. Hope you have a great weekend Cathy!

[sawyer]

hmmm i feel like i've seen this before. well at least i've learned something new. i like green beans...fresh and canned, although i've never tried dill ones before.

[janfrederick]

I just saw the dill green beans the other day when I was buying green beans for Thanksgiving green bean casserole. I might have to stock up now. They sound yummy.

When I made mine, I used canned potatoes. I'd never used them before, but they worked really well. No sweating getting them cooked just right and then cooled for the salad. For a working parent, little shortcuts help during the week. All the fancy stuff happens on the weekend.

And no, I'm not sliding down the slippery Sandra Lee slope! The problem with her isn't her use of processed foods, it's just that her recipes seem to be complicated to the point of "you might as well use fresh ingredients".

By thw way, did you use those anchovies from Mona Lisa? I almost bought a large jar this weekend, but settled for a couple small tins. I should have bought my tuna there!

[Cathy]

Hey, Tina- spent a good part of the weekend getting ready for our annual "road trip". We tend to eat this way more often, but never thought of it as a 'recipe' per se. We had some heat and so this way of 'cooking' is easy. You could substitute any kind of leftover meat on the plate...
Sawyer! I never posted it as a meal made at home, but maybe you are thinking of my little airplane trip meal. Anyhow, there are some interesting canned vegetables and fruits (fruit coctail with added cherries..then again I buy maraschino cherries and eat the whole jar by myself) I saw freeze dried grean beans at Trader Joe's on Sunday: almost bought, but had my snacks for the week...
Wait for the dilled green beans to go on sale, JF. They won't work well in the green bean casserole. I've used the canned potatoes before but got some good deals recently at the 99¢ Only store, and everything like that is on sale for Thanksgiving. I could do a whole dissertation on Sandra Lee. When I saw her make cheesecake by scooping apart a whole store bought cheesecake into individual muffin cups, I started making up my own stories about her (and the accompanying adult beverages at the end of every show). Good eye on the anchovies. That actually was a new jar from ML. I am still finishing up a jar I got at Major Market a while ago. It is all stained with lovely oils and looked nasty for the photo. I carry tinned anchovies when I go out. The Mister can't stand them. (as I can't stand the sardines he eats directly from the can. With salt.) :)

[jeff c]

Cathy, I always forget how good a salad nicoise is, especially with endive and a good grilled tuna or oiled poached tuna.

[Cathy]

Hi jeff c- it is delightfully refreshing and healthy too...fresh tuna makes it better, I should try to poach it next time. Thanks for that idea.