Dorie Greenspan’s Warm Fusilli French Riviera Style

By stancec44

A true salad niçoise has boiled potatoes and hard-cooked eggs, and there’s no reason not to add those to this pasta dish. Choose the smallest potatoes you can find — you want only 4 or 5 — and cook them, unpeeled, until tender. Once they’re cool, cut them into bite-size chunks. Cook 6 eggs, cool them, then cut into quarters. Toss the potatoes with the pasta, but use the eggs to top the dish.

Ingredients

• Fine sea salt
• 1 pound dried fusilli pasta
• 2 cans (5 to 6 ounces each) light tuna packed in olive oil, drained, oil reserved
• 8 ounces fresh or frozen/defrosted green beans, trimmed, cut into bite-size lengths and cooked until tender-crisp
• 12 pitted black olives, preferably niçoise (if olives are large, coarsely chop)
• 10 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped (optional; use if your fresh tomatoes aren’t completely ripe) 2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes, each cut into quarters
• 6 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (may substitute 2 spring onions)
• 4 flat anchovies, rinsed, dried and coarsely chopped (optional)
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and dried
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, sliced wafer-thin (optional)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons
• Pinch piment d’Espelette (may substitute ground cayenne pepper) 3 tablespoons snipped fresh dill (may substitute chopped chives or parsley)
• Olive oil, as needed
• 2 handfuls arugula, mesclun or soft lettuce, torn (optional)

Preparation

Step 1

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Drop in the fusilli, stir and cook according to the package directions. While the water is reaching a boil and the pasta is cooking, place the tuna into a large serving bowl and break it up with a fork.

Toss in the green beans; olives; sun-dried (as needed) and fresh tomatoes; scallions; anchovies, if using; capers; and garlic (to taste, if using). Mix everything together and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta, place it into the serving bowl and add all the reserved oil from the tuna; mix to coat the pasta. Grate the zest of both lemons into the bowl; cut the fruit in half and squeeze in the juice, then add the piment d’Espelette and the dill. Toss to mix thoroughly; taste for salt, black and red pepper and oil. (If more oil is needed, use the olive oil.) If desired, either top with the torn greens or mix them into the pasta. Serve warm or wait until the pasta reaches room temperature. If you serve the fusilli at room temperature, it may need more oil, salt or pepper; taste for those.

Make ahead: The beans can be cooked, cooled and refrigerated a day in advance. Once the pasta salad is assembled, it can be held at room temperature up to 4 hours, or covered and refrigerated up to 2 days (if served cold the pasta salad may need more oil or salt and pepper, so taste for those).