Un simple menu pour un déjeuner

A platter of raw garden vegetables–crudites–can be one of the most colorful and refreshing ways to begin a meal, and certainly it is one of the most French. For lunches at home it is what my husband Jean and I will have most often, and what could be simpler to prepare? During the cool months (in Provence, any really cold weather is quite unusual), we have wonderful tiny fenouils–bulb fennel–from our winter garden, and in the summer there are fine little radishes, so delicious to eat with good bread and butter. Another good vegetable, and one very classic for crudites, is celery root, grated and in a nice mayonnaise. For this rather rustic first course, the food processor is most useful, for grating the raw vegetable as well as for preparing the nouvelle sauce verte.