When Gourmet magazine folded a few years ago, Saveur, equally as beautiful and beloved by readers, carried on with its stunning coverage of how we eat around the world and recipes to bring those flavors into your own home.
The editors have compiled 1,000 of those recipes into "Saveur: The New Classics Cookbook" ($40, Weldon Owen), whose index you can search by ingredient, recipe title or origin country. It's one of the few books where you can find Portuguese bread and garlic soup, buffalo wings, bibimbap and bananas fosters from Brennan's in New Orleans between two covers.
Although the book offers plenty of modern takes on the classics, most of the dishes skew traditional, which is helpful for things like this Salade Niçoise, a staple served in restaurants far outside France.
Made with ingredients local to the Provençal town of Nice, such as olives, oil-cured tuna and anchovies, this hearty salad — which according to custom ought not to be served over lettuce — can be replicated at home if you aren’t afraid of blanching beans and boiling beets. You can buy already softened beets, like the ones from a company called Love Beets, or even though it sounds blasphemous and very un-Saveur-like, canned whole potatoes.
Salade Niçoise
For the dressing:
1 clove garlic
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
1 shallot, minced
For the salad:
1 lb. small new potatoes, boiled until tender
6 oz. yellow baby beets, boiled until tender, peeled
6 oz. red baby beets, boiled until tender, peeled
8 oz. haricot verts or green beans, blanched
12 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup black niçoise olives
8 small radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
8 salt-packed anchovies, rinsed and drained
4 hard-cooked eggs, halved lengthwise
3 (4-oz.) cans tuna packed in olive oil, drained
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, for garnish
1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions, for garnish
Make the dressing: Mince garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle heavily with salt. Using a knife, scrape garlic and salt together to form a smooth paste. Transfer paste to a bowl and whisk in oil, lemon juice, mustard, shallot, salt, and pepper; set aside.
Make the salad: Arrange all ingredients in separate rows on a large serving platter; drizzle dressing over all ingredients, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with basil and scallions just before serving. Serves 4-6.
— From "Saveur: The New Classics Cookbook" ($40, Weldon Owen)
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