Recipe for Salad Nicoise, Cote D'Azur style

This was a salad I had as a leaving lunch before departing Villefranche. It's a salad nicoise which is always a winner in my book - but I have to say this one was of the best I have ever had.

Of course the recipe for making the perfect Salad Nicoise is to use the freshest of ingredients. Now they didn't use fresh tuna (but they did use a good quality tinned that wasn't dripping in oil but was nicely flaky) and they added a few extra ingredients which really made it extra special.

Ingredients for the perfect Salad Nicoise

Tuna - this had about a whole tin!

Anchovy fillets

Black olives

Hard boiled egg (halved)

Soya beans 

Tiny sweet tomatoes (halved)

Capers

Artichoke hearts

An assortment of green lettuce leaves with a few thrown in for good measure

Garnish with fresh basil leaves

Simply dress with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the best summer salad. Preferably eat sitting overlooking Cap Ferrat but if you can't do that by an open window when the sun shines is pretty good too.