Salade Collioure
Region: France, Roussillon
Category: Salads
Season: Any
Difficulty: Easy and Quick

Colliure is a small Catalan fishing village on the Côte Vermeille, the coastal Mediterranean of the French province of Roussillon which is considered a part of Languedoc. Today, this little gem of a harbor is populated with tourists, but in the twelfth century the large castle overlooking the town was built by the Majorcan kings and it provided protection for this tiny but strategic port. Little beaches are sprinkled around the coast and outdoor cafes always offer this colorful salad, also called salade catalane. It is a pleasant and a light salad and interestingly virtually identical to the Tunisian salatat Tunisiyya bi’l-tifah (Tunisian salad with potatoes).

[photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Yield: Makes 4 servings
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

For the salad

1 head Boston lettuce, torn into pieces

1/2 head radicchio, torn into pieces

One 6-ounce can imported tuna in olive oil

2 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered

2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and quartered

6 salted anchovy fillets, rinsed and cut in half

1 small red potato, boiled until tender, drained and cut into eighths

20 imported black olives

For the vinaigrette

1/ 3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon herbes de Provence

1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

Arrange the lettuce and radicchio attractively on a large serving platter. Scatter the remaining salad ingredients decoratively around and on top of the lettuce. Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients, and pour over the salad, and serve.

Posted: 02/25/2008