Pl. 1010.3 · Food · Recipe
Vegetable tian
Courgettes, aubergines and tomatoes arranged in a rosette in an earthenware dish and slowly baked with thyme. A dish named after its container.
In Provençal, a tian is first a container: a wide, shallow dish of glazed earthenware that people once carried to the baker’s oven. By extension the word means whatever is cooked in it.
The summer vegetable tian is the best known. The tightly packed slices slowly candy in their own juices and the olive oil; the top chars a little. It goes with meat, but is very good on its own, warm, with bread.
Out of season the tian changes face: spinach and eggs, squash or chard, depending on the market. It is the principle that matters, not the list of vegetables.
Recipe · Vegetable tian
- Serves
- 4 people
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 70 min
Ingredients
- 2 medium courgettes
- 1 aubergine
- 4 firm tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- a few sprigs of thyme
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper
Step by step
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
- Slice the onions and soften them gently in a pan with a spoonful of olive oil, without browning. Spread them over the bottom of a gratin dish, ideally earthenware.
- Cut the courgettes, aubergine and tomatoes into slices about 5 mm thick.
- Stand the slices upright on the onions, alternating the colours, packed tightly.
- Tuck the sliced garlic between the vegetables, scatter with thyme, season and drizzle with the rest of the olive oil.
- Cover with baking paper and bake for 40 minutes, then remove it and let the top brown for another 25 to 30 minutes.
Sources
- Tian (plat) — Wikipédia