Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing my exploration of tomato sauce, the fifth of the sauces I have designated as the “mother” sauces of California Cuisine.
Yesterday, I shared the recipe for long simmered, basic Italian tomato sauce. It is a beautiful sauce that’s super versatile:
Today, I’m sharing my recipe for French Tian, which uses the gorgeous Italian tomato sauce as a base:
For those of you who have seen the Disney movie “Ratatouille,” about the cooking rat, you will no doubt recognize this dish as the one Ratatouille serve to Anton Ego at the end of the movie. As an homage to this enthusiastic little dynamo of a cook, I made my ratatouille this way for years, never realizing that what the little rat had really created was a French “Tian.” It basically uses all the same ingredients as a ratatouille, but is baked and ends up more like a casserole than a ratatouille, which is more like a vegetable stew. Both are delicious, although I must confess that I think the French Tian is more photogenic than the ratatouille 😉 And then there’s that connection to the movie and well…the movie simply makes my heart melt, so…
Enjoy this French Tian as a spectacular side dish for any protein–serve it at a dinner party and get ready for the “ooos” and “ahhhs!”
In my next post, I’ll be publishing a great recipe for ragu that pairs beautifully with the basic Italian tomato sauce.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
