Foods of Provence O to P

 Les Olives

Olive Varieties:  Aglandeau, Salonenque, Lucques, Negrette, Bouteillan, Noire de Nyons, Picholine, Cailletier

Olives cassées de la Vallée de Baux de Provence:  Broken, green olives from the Salonenque or Béruguette varieties that have a low shelf life and come flavored with fennel.

Olive de Nîmes:  Whole green olives of the Picholine variety with a characteristically crunchy and juicy texture.

Olive de Nice:  from Cailletier olive

Pan Bagnat:  Often called the Salade Niçoise between bread.  Just like with the Salade Niçoise, there are rules to follow…. The ones on the left are from the Commune Libre du Pan Bagnat.

The vegetables have to be raw:  no cooked potatoes or cooked green beans.  Lots of recipes to choose from:

Bon Appétit

America’s Test Kitchen

Serious Eats

New York Times

Are they authentic??

For a good discussion of the complexity of the issue, go to David Lebovitz.

We’ll discuss the Salade Niçoise in more detail below.

Panisse:  Fried chickpea fritters that are a specialty of Marseille.  Chickpea flower is cooked into a polenta-like mixture, cooled, cut into French fry shapes and then deep-fried. 

Socca: These are chickpea crepes, also called Cade in Toulon and Farinata in Liguria.  We saw these being made in Toulon when we visited Yolanda in 1999 but we weren’t ready for lunch at the time and then didn’t see them again.  We’ll have 6 weeks to hunt them down in Provence.  Or in Nice.