Niçoise Salad

Certain smells and flavors bring me back to different places or remind me of specific memories. One flavor combination that always takes me to France is the niçoise salad. The combination of the vinaigrette, the olives, the tuna, and the vegetables is so French to me. My recipe came from Jane Doerfer's Going Solo in the Kitchen, but Julia Child's Recipe is similar except that I left out the anchovies. The key to this particular salad is using fresh green beans and making the vinaigrette yourself:

I used a potato medley that included purple potatoes. The vinaigrette recipe I used included fresh basil.

The recipe didn't call for a cucumber, but I thought I would use one anyway since I had one from the garden.

This salad is really hearty with the egg and the tuna. I also used tuna packed in water instead of packed in oil, which is not very French, but the one time I had oil packed tuna, I wasn't a fan. Quelle horreur!