The Italian Ingredient Ree Drummond Uses To Elevate Her Niçoise Salads

Niçoise salad is one of the most iconic French salads. It has long been used as somewhat of a "pantry cleanup" dish, combining a whole variety of ingredients and sparking centuries-long debates about what the "correct" recipe is. Pouring a little bit of gasoline on this fire is Ree Drummond, whose Niçoise salad recipe, shared on The Pioneer Woman website, features an unexpected but classic Italian ingredient: basil pesto.

This salad is usually made with a simple mustard-based dressing or a light vinaigrette. Drummond upgrades it with pesto, enhancing both the creaminess and the flavor. Her dressing includes lemon juice for the acidity, Dijon mustard, honey for the sweetness, pesto, olive oil, and the trusty salt and pepper. The herby flavors of this French-and-Italian combination give the Niçoise salad an elevated feel, so consider pesto as yet another of the secret ingredients we're stealing from Ree Drummond.

Her creative pesto uses don't stop with the salad dressing, either. The Pioneer Woman has previously shared that she loves using pesto on pizza, spreading it on the dough in place of the tomato sauce. She'll also use it in marinades (particularly with chicken, a somewhat bland protein on its own) and has even put it in soups!

As mentioned, the original purpose of the Niçoise salad used to be combining the ingredients at hand into a hearty meal. So regardless of what the staunch purists might say, the entire purpose of this French creation is built around flexibility; you should absolutely feel emboldened to add anything you want into this salad and experiment with the flavor combos. Our colorful Niçoise salad recipe doesn't have lettuce, which is in alignment with traditional recipes, but Drummond includes lettuce in her variation. We used black olives; she used green olives. Hers features pickled red onions, while we went for the fresh. You can literally spin the recipe in any direction you want, as long as the key components are there: Some form of cooked potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, and green beans usually represent the very heart of the modern Niçoise salad.

Another thing that shouldn't be missing from this salad is fish. The addition of tuna or anchovies is what sets it apart with its salty, umami flavor — whether you're eating it from a bowl or munching on Niçoise toast, the tuna salad sandwich's dapper older cousin. Canned tuna is the more popular choice these days, though in the past, anchovies took precedence. Fresh tuna also sometimes appears in the contemporary Niçoise salad recipes, making the whole dish a bit more bougie.