Eating in Provence (Wherever You Actually Eat)
Eating in Provence (Wherever You Actually Eat)
I have spent the summer, food friends, in my house. We had hurricane repairs to finish from last year, and a part of a ceiling fell in, and other things occurred which made it just impractical to go anywhere for a trip. But that didn’t stop me from eating as if I were on the Riviera this past week.
Don’t bother buying what they call “light olive oil.” That is a waste of money. Why wouldn’t one want the full flavor of this ingredient? Would you buy a bottle of champagne which only had five percent of the bubbles? Get yourself extra virgin olive oil, food friend, whatever else remains virginal in your midst!
If I had actually been on the Riviera, I probably would have had wine, but right now, I am not drinking while I try to write early in the morning. If I had been on the Riviera, I probably would have tried to go night fishing in Antibes. I probably would have tried to pick lavender in the hills. I did neither of those things. But food has a way of transporting me despite the lack of lavender fields and cellulite-free sunbathers in Cannes. I cooked food for my husband and for me that was simple but redolent with provençal ingredients and flavors.
The most important ingredient of all in provençal cooking is olive oil. In parts of Provence, one sees ancient olive trees with nets under them catching the olives that get pressed into extra-virgin olive oil. This would be a wonderful place for me to joke about how little is extra virgin these days, but thank goodness olive oil is still available extra virgin. It tastes like sunshine glinting off the Mediterranean. Don’t bother buying what they call “light olive oil.” That is a waste of money. Why wouldn’t one want the full flavor of this ingredient? Would you buy a bottle of champagne which only had five percent of the bubbles? Get yourself extra virgin olive oil, food friend, whatever else remains virginal in your midst!
I made stuffed peppers for my husband this week with ground meat and herbs from my garden. I confess I do this sometimes simply to get him to eat a vegetable. If it’s covered in beef juice, how veggie could it be? He seems unoffended by stuffed peppers.
Some chefs like to make stuffed peppers that stand upright. I prefer to split the peppers in two and stuff them horizontally. Whenever I put them in the oven upright, I find that despite my attempt to flatten the base of them with a knife, they tip over as they soften. They are less pretty this way, see below.
I halved and emptied several bell peppers of their seeds. In a separate bowl, I added large chunks of chopped onion, bread crumbs, egg, olive oil, garlic, chopped herbs, salt and pepper, and I mixed these together and stuffed them in the halves. I baked them with provençal vegetables — grape tomatoes, peppers, garlic, zucchini, onions and peppers. I tossed them in olive oil and baked them in the oven with the peppers for about an hour.
The next day, after a long night of writing and a cat nap, I woke up to the smell of the olive oil and garlic that had permeated my kitchen in the food from the night before. I decided to make the leftover vegetables part of breakfast for my husband and for me.
I made a traditional French egg dish with those provençal vegetables - a piperade. It’s basically an omelette with tomatoes, peppers (and in this case bacon and zucchini). I added a little shredded cheese and garlic as well. I served this with Italian bread to my husband and to me. The French tend to eat this as a lunch dish, rather than a breakfast dish. I will eat it any time, day or night.
I also made a meal with sea scallops, broccoli, and potatoes, cooked in a Mediterranean style. I took Italian bread crumbs, LOTS of herbs from the garden, olive oil, and the juice of two lemons and made them together. I drizzled the broccoli with olive oil and lemon juice as well. I roasted red potatoes with garlic and herbs in olive oil. I served it all with an arugula, tomato salad in a balsamic vinaigrette.
The ingredients here were delightful and fresh, but we had leftover scallops and broccoli the next day. I decided to cut two pieces of bacon into lardons, add a large chopped onion, and add the scallops from the night before in quarters after the onions had sweated in bacon grease, the broccoli florets that were leftover, more garlic, and a can of fire-roasted tomatoes. I cooked some penne pasta and tossed it all together.
It was absolutely delicious! All of these dishes taste like the summer sun.
I did not travel to the South of France this summer, but the South of France came in the scents of basil, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, and lemon in my house. I have not traveled this year, but these dishes transported me. May you be transported by flavors that evoke summer dinners where people laugh and lean back in their chairs as they savor fresh ingredients at a leisurely pace.
SHOPPING LIST
Meat/Seafood
1.5 pounds ground beef
2 pounds sea scallops
1 package of bacon
Dairy
Shredded Mozarella cheese
1 carton of eggs
Whole milk
Produce
1 head (or container) of Arugula
1 large zucchini
5 green peppers
4 red potatoes
1 bunch of broccoli (or one bag of broccoli florets)
1 bunch of Italian Parsley
1 bunch of cilantro
2 bunches of fresh basil (if you can — grow some herbs of your own. Basil is happy in a warm climate, particularly during the summer).
2 cartons of grape tomatoes (or the equivalent weight of tomatoes of any size — if they are larger, you will need to chop them).
4 shallots
3 onions
2 lemons
Groceries
1 bottle of extra virgin olive oil (I recommend making this a large bottle. These recipes call for an abundance of it. One can really never have too much olive oil in the kitchen!)
1 jar of minced garlic (or two or three bulbs of garlic that you mince yourself)
Dried oregano
Dried thyme
Balsamic vinegar
Mustard (Any mustard will do, even a fast-food packet of it, but I prefer Dijon coarse ground mustard where I can see the seeds.)
1 box of Italian breadcrumbs (You could make this yourself by puréeing stale bread with parsley, oregano, basil, and thyme, but I recommend until your kitchen truly becomes a bastion of Italian culinary excellence that you just purchase the breadcrumbs.)
1 box of penne
1 can of diced tomatoes
Bakery
1 loaf of Italian bread
Note that because I am writing around the clock right now, I am not adding wine to any meal, not even when I cook off the alcohol. Even one glass of wine can make me drowsy, and I am awake right now at all hours. But ALL of these dishes would benefit from a light red Italian wine, if you decide to add such an ingredient.
This grocery list at at my local grocer this week would cost $1340.
As I said, I would likely add wine to this most weeks, but not a terribly expensive one. I would enjoy a Syrah with this. Syrah wines are generally available between 10 and 15 dollars a bottle, though there are more expensive bottles to be had. I would find a light red wine, perfect for summer. Many people (including me) like to drink Syrah chilled in summer months. If you had such a bottle, you might spend a total of $155 here. I suspect that many of the ingredients here are ones you have on hand (or that you might enjoy having on hand for future recipes).
RECIPES
Note — because I foresaw making a lot or recipes with the same herbs, I chopped all the parsley, cilantro and basil from the bunches I had together prior to making any of the recipes you see below.
Mediterranean stuffed peppers
4 green peppers, split in two.
1.5 pounds of ground beef
2 diced onions
3 tbs minced garlic
1 tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
Chopped parsley, basil, and cilantro — about 1/4 cup total
1/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs
2 eggs
Pour the olive oil into a baking pan and coat it.
Place the split peppers in that baking dish open side up.
Set the oven for 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. Mix until it is an even consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the pepper halves to almost overflowing.
Bake for about an hour.
Provençal roasted vegetables
1 carton of grape tomatoes
1 large zucchini, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp of garlic
1/4 cup of chopped Fresh cilantro, basil, and Italian parsley
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp thyme
1/4 cup of olive oil
Set the oven at 375 degrees.
Toss all the ingredients together in a roasting pan.
Roast for about 35 minutes.
Serve with the stuffed peppers in the recipe above this one and some Italian bread.
Anne’s Provençal Piperade
Note: ingredients in a piperade vary from region to region in Southern France. I consequently took a few liberties of my own, like adding bacon.
Note too that I used the leftover vegetables I cooked in the first meal as a primary ingredient for the piperade.
2 slices of bacon, cut into lardons (small pieces)
6 eggs
3 tbsp of milk
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp of shredded mozzarella
1/3 cup of Provençal roasted vegetables (see recipe above)
In a frying pan, fry the lardons until they render fat and begin to brown.
Throw in the Provençal roasted vegetables, and coat with bacon grease. Let these ingredients cook further as you beat the eggs.
Beat the eggs with milk, salt and pepper.
Add the eggs to the frying pan. With the flat of a fork, pull cooked eggs from the edges of the pan into the center until much of the egg is at lest partially cooked, as one would for a classic omelet.
Add the cheese on top. Cook until all the edges of the egg mixture is slightly browned.
Flip on a plate. Cut in half, and serve each half with Italian bread.
Mediterranean Sea scallops
2 pounds of sea scallops
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 shallots, finely minced
The juice of one freshly squeezed lemon
1 tbsp. Minced garlic
1 tbsp of chopped parsley, basil, and cilantro
1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs
Set the oven to 425 degrees.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together. Place in a ceramic baking dish. Bake for about a half hour.
Broccoli a la provençale
1 head of broccoli, chopped.
1/2 cup of olive oil
The juice of one freshly squeezed lemon
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp of chopped Italian parsley, cilantro and basil
Set oven to 425 degrees.
Combine all the ingredients together in a baking dish.
Bake for 1/2 hour.
Potatoes a la provençale
4 red potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. Chopped fresh parsley, cilantro and basil
1 tbsp dried oregano and thyme
3 tbsp minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste.
Set oven to 425 degrees.
Toss all the ingredients listed above in a baking dish.
Roast for an hour and serve when cool enough to put in one’s mouth.
Classic Provençal vinaigrette
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar (or a different vinegar you prefer)
3/4 cup of olive oil
1 tbsp. Mustard
Chopped herbs and salt and pepper to taste
Combine the ingredients together. If you store any leftover vinaigrette, you can store it at room temperature in a sealed container.
Anne’s Arugula Salad
1 bunch of arugula leaves
1 carton of grape tomatoes
3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette (recipe above)
Toss and enjoy.
Anne’s Penne with Scallops and Bacon
1 pound of leftover scallops (from the recipe above) quartered.
2 slices of bacon, cut into lardons
1 large onion, diced
2 tbsp dried oregano and thyme
2 tbsp chopped parsley, cilantro, and basil
4 tbsp of minced garlic
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 can of diced tomatoes (or you can dice some tomatoes you already have on hand)
Salt and pepper to taste
Boil the penne as instructed on the box in which it came.
In a large frying pan, fry the lardons until they begin to render fat.
Toss in the onion slices, and coat them in the bacon fat. Cook until clear.
Add the garlic and herbs. Cook for a minute or two.
Add the leftover scallops (which are already cooked) and the diced tomatoes. cook and stir.
Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.
Toss the cooked penne in the mixture from the frying pan and serve.