Baked Stuffed Vegetables

For practical purposes, roasting and baking are the same thing, although strictly speaking roasting means cooking on a spit in front of an open fire, something we’re unlikely to do with vegetables. But roasting also implies an intense heat designed to seal in flavor quickly and perhaps even to cause the outside of the vegetable to caramelize. Baking implies cooking at a lower temperature so that the moisture in the vegetables slowly evaporates and the vegetable’s flavor is slowly concentrated.

French cooks are geniuses at making something delicious out of a few leftovers and raw ingredients. In the south of France, where there’s an abundance of vegetables, cooks often improvise stuffings for vegetables to give them savor and to turn them into bright hors d’oeuvres or side dishes or, if there’s enough variety, even a main course. The stuffing is usually based on the pulp carved out of vegetables such zucchini, eggplants, and tomatoes, and is usually cooked with garlic and onions, sometimes pieces of leftover meat or ham, often bread crumbs or rice, and herbs. If an assortment of stuffed vegetables is being served, the herbs and other flavorings should be varied as much as possible so that each vegetable has its own special identity and all the vegetables taste different. Don’t worry about following these recipes too closely. You can exchange the stuffing flavorings with those for different vegetables.