Tuna Nicoise

Sunday dinner is the most important meal of the week. Making Sunday night festive makes the weekend feel longer some how. It is also the one night that I have time to try a putsy or time consuming recipe. This weekend we had delicious, decadent meals out Friday and Saturday so we were in the mood for something light. I decided on a Tuna Nicoise salad.

I did most of the prep in the afternoon when I got home from the store. I started with 2 eggs- hardboiled them. John and I found a recipe that works beautifully every time. Put your eggs in a pot, cover entirely with water and put on high heat. As soon as the water starts to boil, pull the pot off of the burner and turn it down to low. Put the pot back on for 1 minute. Remove from heat, cover the pot and set the timer for 12 minutes. This method ensures that the yolk is cooked through but not chalky and dry.

Next I put 4 new potatoes in a pot to boil. Once the water came to a boil-I blanched some fresh green beans in the same pot for 3 minutes and then put in an ice bath to cool. I drained them well, wrapped in papertowels and then placed in the fridge. You don't want them to be soggy.

While the potatoes continued to cook, I made a vinaigrette. As nerdy as it sounds, making vinaigrettes is one of my favorite things. I inherited this from my mother... We all have a slightly different recipes but I assure you, you won't find store bought in any Cobetto house hold... Anyways, I started with a teaspoon of dijon mustard, added the zest of a lemon (not quite the whole lemon), the juice from half of the lemon, a teaspoon of minced shallot, a tiny squeeze of honey, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Whisk together until emulsified. If you can make this in advance, I think the flavor gets better as the shallots marinate.

Then the tuna... I got a BEAUTIFUL piece of tuna from whole foods. I swear it was 2.5 inches thick. Drizzled it with olive oil and rubbed with salt, pepper and some herbs de provence. John grilled it so that it had a nice herb crust on the outside and it was still pink inside- just right. I don't like it too rare when eating it on a salad...

While the tuna rested, I assembled the salad. Baby spinach, blanched green beans, boiled new potato wedges, hard boiled egg wedges, santa sweet grape tomatoes and of course a mixture of green and kalamata pitted olives. Top the salad with the sliced tuna, drizzle generously with the vinaigrette and done.

Sunday is also a great day for DESSERT! Today it is blueberry cobbler day. (blueberries were on sale) Cobblers and crisps are my favorite summer time desserts. I love them particularly because it is not a fine science, you can kind of just wing it. I put three cups or so of fresh blueberries into a bowl with the zest and juice of 1 large lemon, 1/4 cup of flour and 1/3 cup of sugar or so. Mix carefully but well until you have a syrup coating the berries. I poured the blueberries into four individual, buttered ramekins.

I used the rolled pillsbury crust from the fridge section of the grocery (it's really hard to beat in my opinion). I rolled it out and cut circles to fit my ramekins- you want about 1/2 an inch or so to hang over the edges. I placed the crusts over the dishes, pressing around the edges to ensure that it doesn't shrink up while baking. I had some extra dough so I made some cute little leaves to decorate the crusts. I then brushed the tops with milk to help them brown nicely and sprinkled with raw sugar for some crunch. Cut some vents into the top of the crust and put them into the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. Let cool and served warm with vanilla ice cream of course.

(NOTE: you want to be sure that the blueberries are really heaping in the dish because they reduce and shrint way down as they cook.)

Already have a menu for tomorrow so we'll talk to you then!