the Niçoise Cookbook: Market Inspired Cooking from France’s Sunniest City

The big obvious difference between Nice and Seattle is about 300 more sunny days a year than Seattle ever sees but we have plenty of vegetables in common. Chard, tomatoes, squash, sweet peppers and eggplant are only a few of the standards. The abundance of chard in the south of France is underscored by the abundance of chard recipes in this book, 12 to be exact out of 101 total. (For comparison, there are 20 recipes with tomatoes.) I was fascinated to learn that in addition to using chard to make savory tarts, pies and stuffings, the resourceful residents of Nice also make desserts! The author says the sweet chard pie is sold right next to the savory pie. The savory is encased in pastry in a long pan and sold in slices. The sweet is cut in squares similar to a brownie and dusted with powdered sugar on top of the crust. “ The iconic Niçoise dessert is sold in most local bakeries and is for many children, including my son, a primary source of greens in their diet.”

The most important part of author Rosa Jackson’s resume to me is that she has spent the last 20 years living, writing and teaching cooking in Nice. She gets around to other places but the focus of this book is Nice, a city I love and always want to visit again. As some of you know, my character, Bernadette, has a cottage nearby featured in The Cooking Class in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Double click on all the images to zoom in.

My abundance of chard springs from my neighbor, Susan, who has plenty planted in her garden every year and invites me to harvest all I want. I filled two brown grocery store bags with chard yesterday to make this recipe not really knowing how much I needed to weigh a pound. Laid out on the counter to dry after washing it looked like a mountain of chard. After removing the stems I decided that was all I was doing. If it wasn’t a pound I would get out my calculator to adjust the recipe. The process of rolling a stack of leaves up and then thinly slicing the the roll takes a little time. No point in making huge fat rolls because it’s hard to make the slices thin enough. Luckily, the volume of chard I picked and my patience for the task resulted in 14 ounces of finely sliced chard which was all that fit in my 12-inch frying pan. The recipe is fairly simple. Sautéed onions and nuts, and wilted chard mixed with eggs, and grated cheese. I was skeptical that a pinch of dried thyme and two tablespoons of parsley would add much flavor. I was wrong. The mixture almost filled my pie dish before it went in the oven and when it came out it was dense and delicious. It made a hearty dinner for two people from less than half the pie. You notice, I’m sure, I skipped the crust. I’m not much of a baker but I’ve always wanted one of those pate pans. It would look so great on a buffet.

Double click on the photos of the recipe to zoom in and be able to read the directions.