Tian de Courge

On wintry Sundays there is always a roast on the Bouquet’s fireplace spit. The vegetables may be whole onions baked in richly herbed meat juices or a terra cotta dish may appear, filled with this melting tian of pumpkin. ‘Tian’ refers both to a Provençal gratin & also to the dish in which it is cooked. Before gas and electric ovens made their appearance, the tian, with sunken coal-filled metal lid, was placed on a three-footed iron stand in the corner of the fire place.