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Provençal vegetable soups
Appears in
Published 1995
The hinterlands of Provence – that area between the sea and the mountains known as the arrière-pays– is a region of farmers who have always worked their own land, growing their own vegetables, tending their own orchards and vineyards, and keeping their own animals. As a result, Provençal cooks have a great respect for the raw materials of their region, and always use them with care in the kitchen.
In this beautiful land with its rolling hillsides covered with olive groves and apple, pear, peach and apricot orchards, almond groves and well-stocked farmsteads, it is hard to realize that historically Provence was a poor country, where the peasant farmers lived mainly on vegetable soups and vegetables, with the occasional wild rabbit or hare, or a catch of little game birds, as their only luxury.