Recipes from France

The Mediterranean coast of France runs in an arc round the Golfe du Lion from Perpignan near the Spanish frontier, through the Languedoc and the strange marshlands and lagoons of the Bouches du Rhône, to the great ports of Marseille and Toulon; and then in a wriggling line eastwards along the Côte d’Azur, through Cannes and Nice to the Italian border. In the west the influence of Spanish cookery is evident, to the east pasta and other signs of Italian influence begin to appear. But in the very centre of this coastline, from Aigues-Mortes to Marseille, we find one of the truly French regional cuisines, that of Provence. It is a cuisine of olive oil and garlic and tomatoes, of thyme, rosemary and fennel and the other herbs which grow wild on the limestone hills there. Of all the French regional cuisines this is perhaps the most interesting and distinctive in its treatment of seafood.