Provencale Vegetable Tian
Confession Time. I planted way too many tomatoes this year and I was looking for the best, most tasty way to use them. I ended up making a Provençale Vegetable Tian - which is sort of a super healthy vegetable casserole.
You may remember the hit 2007 movie 'Ratatouille" about a rat who yearns to be a renowned chef. In the best scene, Remy the Rat serves a vegetable tian (mistakenly called ratatouille by Disney) to the harsh restaurant critic Anton Ego.
The word, tian, confusingly has two meanings: it is both an earthenware dish and whatever you are preparing inside of your tian. Every French person I know has their family favorites. This tian was ours. It is super colorful and will be the star of any meal.
Provençale Vegetable Tian by Francois de Melogue
To Salt or Not To Salt
Shocker: I do not salt eggplants before cooking them. A Japanese chef friend taught me to soak them in cold water instead. Where you think they would be soggy - they aren’t. All the inherent bitterness washed away.
PREP: 15 minutes | COOK: 45 minutes | SERVES: 8
2 Japanese eggplant, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
10 plum tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, split among a few steps
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
2 bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, smashed (optional)
10 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
4 thin zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Lay the eggplant slices onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake 10 minutes, just until it softens.
Lay the tomato slices onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes, just until the tomatoes start to shrink a little.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the basil and cook for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread one-quarter of the mixture in a 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Blanch the zucchini for 30 seconds; use a slotted spoon to remove them from the water.
Arrange the slices of zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes in alternating layers over the onions and peppers, with the slices overlapping. Continue making layers until all the vegetables are used up. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and bake until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
