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Provencale Vegetable Tian
A Great Use for Too Many Tomatoes in Your Garden
Confession Time. I planted way too many tomatoes this year and I was looking for the best, most tasty way to use them. I ended up making a Provençale Vegetable Tian — which is sort of a super healthy vegetable casserole.
You may remember the hit 2007 movie ‘Ratatouille” about a rat who yearns to be a renowned chef. In the best scene, Remy the Rat serves a vegetable tian (mistakenly called ratatouille by Disney) to the harsh restaurant critic Anton Ego.
The word, tian, confusingly has two meanings: it is both an earthenware dish and whatever you are preparing inside of your tian. Every French person I know has their family favorites. This tian was ours. It is super colorful and will be the star of any meal.
To Salt or Not To Salt
Shocker: I do not salt eggplants before cooking them. A Japanese chef friend taught me to soak them in cold water instead. Where you think they would be soggy — they aren’t. All the inherent bitterness washed away.
