Les Légumes

Vegetables

Appears in
top 1000The Cuisine of the Sun: Classical French Cooking from Nice and Provence
The Cuisine of the Sun

By Mireille Johnston

Published 1990

  • About

Vegetables are the core of Niçois and Provençal cooking. Gastronomy in the South of France begins with vegetables instead of meat. They are very often the main dish, and a variety are served with dips (bagna cauda is an outstanding example) instead of potato chips or crackers. Soups and sauces are thickened with vegetables instead of cream or egg yolks.

Some Niçois claim they know more than seventy ways to cook vegetables. Often three or four of them are demonstrated in a single meal; there may be a vegetable dip, salad, soup, stew, and gratin. Vegetables are always treated with the utmost respect and imagination. The following recipes are designed to enhance their natural flavor, never to overpower it.