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Tian Provençal

Sep 5, 2020

I learned this vegetable tian — the Provençal vegetable dish named for the earthenware vessel it is meant to be cooked in — at l’École de Cuisine du Soleil Roger Vergé in Mougins. Roger Vergé, the French chef and restauranteur renowned for his unique style of Provençal cooking, founded the school to promote his healthful cooking approach—based on local, seasonal ingredients and a love for good food and gathering friends around the table.

Students had to master this dish, among others, while studying in Mougins. The challenge—slicing the vegetables quite thin, by hand, so that they were all precisely the same size, and arranging them in careful layers, over sweet, tender caramelized onions. Then, drenching the summer vegetables in an aromatic, fruity olive oil and covering them in fragrant garlic and Herbes de Provence—a method that insures the perfect melding of the earthy zucchini, sun-sweetened tomatoes, and summer-ripened aubergine—the great achievement of a well-made tian. All the vegetables at Verge’s were picked from the gardens at Mougins or plucked from the farmer’s market very early the same morning. Sun ripened, fragrant and delicious! Allowing the finished dish to rest after cooking further elevates these summer garden vegetables.

While wandering Instagram for recipe inspiration, I came across Eric Ripert’s tian, and I was so delighted to see those perfectly cut vegetables bubbling in the oven. I excitedly dug out my old, tattered Vergé notebook, with notes scribbled in Frenglish, and olive oil stains – I was transported back to Mougins. I made this recipe with my daughters (allowing the mandolin to cover for my rusty knife skills). It was a big hit with the family and the girls wanted to learn how to make it on their own. They took turns and experimented, creating their own versions—one night Gigi swapped the Herbes de Provence for an Italian blend we had in the kitchen, poured a delicious red sauce over the vegetables and sprinkled it with parmesan cheese—an ode to our Italian heritage. On another occasion, Kayla left out the zucchini and added a sprinkling of gruyere cheese. That is the beauty of a tian—use what you love, what is fresh, fragrant, local, and delicious to make it your own. Like our Banana Bread, this tian became a staple of our quarantine cuisine.

As with most ratatouilles, this dish will improve with age overnight in the refrigerator, and if there are leftover vegetables, cook smaller, individual tian’s to be enjoyed throughout the week—they truly get better with age. Our tians appear mostly as the main course of a healthful lunch, complemented by a garden-fresh green salad and grilled bread. They are also delightfully beautiful accompaniments to grilled fish for heartier meals, and lovely on a buffet when entertaining.

Here is a version that borrows some of Vergé’s original recipe, and some of Ripert’s.

Serving Size: 4

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Recipe Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 medium-sized sweet onions, cut in half and thinly sliced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 large yellow summer zucchini

1 large green zucchini

1 large eggplant, halved lengthwise

4 large tomatoes, cored, halved lengthwise

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons Herbes de Provence

4 sprigs fresh thyme

Recipe Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush a 9-inch baking dish with olive oil and set aside.

Melt the butter in a pan over low heat and add the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the onions slowly over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, and scraping up the sticky “fond” that builds up on the bottom of the pan, stirring it into the onions. Cook until onions are soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes.

While the onions cook, slice the zucchinis, eggplant, and tomatoes on a Japanese mandolin (or by hand) into 1/4-inch-thick disks.

Spread the caramelized onions across the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

Arrange the zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes in alternating rows: Start by making a row of overlapping yellow zucchini slices, standing them vertically on edge. Follow with a row of eggplant, then a row of green zucchini, then tomatoes in the same manner, packing the rows tightly together in a circular arrangement around the dish. Continue until the baking dish is filled.

Sprinkle the surface of the vegetables generously with salt, pepper, and minced garlic, and then drizzle half the olive oil over the top, soaking the vegetables completely.

Dust the vegetables with the Herbes de Provence, and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Place fresh thyme on top.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Remove the foil, allowing the vegetables to roast and caramelize, about another 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the tian to cool.

Serve in the baking dish, at room temperature.

Note: In Provence we caramelized our onions in a beautiful oven proof skillet, then layered our vegetables over the top and put the skillet in the oven. When the tian cooled, we would slip a beautiful potholder over the handle and place the dish on top of a trivet at the table—a charming Provençal touch. Vergé loved to serve in the same vessels he cooked in, retaining all the flavors and juices of each well-seasoned dish.

If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a picture and share it on Instagram with the #anniefalk so we can all see it!

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