14 Comments
Jul 15Liked by Jamie Schler

I made one just yesterday. We love the flavours and textures. Yellow squash, zucchinis, aubergines, tomatoes & haloumi. Bathed in a lot of olive oil, garlic, fresh rosemary & black olives. Salt & pepper of course.

Expand full comment
author

Oh! I wish I could get halloumi ! That sounds fabulous !

Expand full comment

I think it adds to the blend of textures. The tian is one of my favourite recent culinary discoveries. Thank you for sharing its provençale origin story. Until now I thought it might have been North-African, Middle-Eastern, or Asian even.

Expand full comment

I knew a tian was both a dish and THE dish, but didn't know that the tian we all know now is relatively recent.

Expand full comment
author

I'm always surprised by what I find in my research!

Expand full comment
Jul 15Liked by Jamie Schler

I LOVE your food history lessons - THANK

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, Penny!!! That really means a lot to me!

Expand full comment

What a beautiful dish—and dish! I’d never heard of a tian, but now I’d like to own one. The history, as always, is fascinating. The dish (the contents, that is) reminds me of a deconstructed ratatouille. Thanks, Jamie!

Expand full comment
author

A desconstructed ratatouille! That's brilliant! Yes, yes it is!

Expand full comment
Jul 15Liked by Jamie Schler

Jamie, I may give this a try -- I'm not a big fan of eggplant (70s Eggplant Parm was 🤮 in my estimation, and my distaste lingers, and the skins can be so tough) but will eat young fruit roasted or grilled on rare occasion, along with oiled planks of summer squash or zucchini. My wife loves it, so I just might have to bake it. Topping with seasoned bread crumbs and some cheese to get crunchy towards the end of baking would help, I think.

Expand full comment
author

Doug, why don't you replace the eggplant with maybe yellow courge/zucchini and bell peppers? Both are often used in tians. I do have to say that I love the caramelized skin of the eggplant but my husband picked them off and left them on the side of his plate. lol

Expand full comment
Jul 16Liked by Jamie Schler

Jamie, that's one thing I like about cooking (and it applies to many other activities as well, including art, music, garden design etc.): it's important to learn the "rules" of a recipe, but once learned, you discover ways to bend or break them to your taste. Cheers!

Expand full comment
Jul 15Liked by Jamie Schler

So interesting! And sounds delicious. I'll definitely try it. I don't have an earthenware dish or casserole though - can I make it in a pyrex dish (I know that defeats the purpose of a tian though)? It sounds a lot like ratatouille, which I make all the time (leftovers currently in my fridge, in fact :-)). The history is fascinating - love reading about the history of food.

Expand full comment
author

Yes absolutely make it in Pyrex! It’s the same vegetables as a ratatouille and a specialty of the same region.

Expand full comment