Seared Tuna Niçoise

Making Seared Tuna Niçoise

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1. Boil the eggs 7 minutes for a set white and a soft, bright yolk, then cool them under running water and peel.

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2. Boil the green beans 3 minutes in the same water, then drop them into cold water so they keep their colour and bite.

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3. Mash the anchovies and garlic to a paste, then whisk in the vinegar, mustard, oil and pepper.

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4. Pat the tuna dry and press the cracked pepper and salt into both faces.

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5. Heat a heavy pan with the tablespoon of oil until it is just beginning to smoke.

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6. Sear the tuna 90 seconds on each side. The outside should be brown and the centre still deep red.

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7. Rest it 3 minutes, then slice across the grain into 1 cm slices.

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8. Toss the leaves, beans, tomatoes, olives and capers with most of the vinaigrette, lay the tuna and halved eggs over, and spoon the rest across.

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Notes for Getting It Right

• Ninety seconds a side and no more. If the pan is not almost smoking, wait — a lukewarm pan cooks the tuna through before it browns.
• Buy the thickest steak you can. A thin one is grey before it has a crust.
• Cool the beans in cold water the moment they come out, or they carry on cooking and go khaki.

Ingredient Swaps

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What Goes With Seared Tuna Niçoise

• A cold Provençal rosé
• Bread and butter, for anyone not counting carbohydrate
• A ripe peach afterwards

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: French Baguette, Aligot, Boulangere Potatoes.

Keeping and Reheating

Assemble to serve. Components keep separately 2 days; the tuna is good cold the next day but never reheat it. Dressed leaves are finished within the hour.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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