Tian of Zucchini, Spinach, and Rice
When I was visiting the Luberon, we wound our way up to the top of the hillop village of Bonnieux and stopped at the Musée de la Boulangerie. There, in an ancient house, the history of bread and baking is traced. Among the ancient pots and pans were shallow unglazed earthenware bowls called at the museum “tians,” which were and are used much like Dutch ovens for cooking vegetables in the embers of a fire. In the south of France, there are many recipes for tians, layered casseroles of vegetables sometimes mixed with eggs and sometimes with rice and served in the Jewish way as a main course for a dairy meal. In this recipe, a nice substitute for the spinach would be Swiss chard, also a vegetable used since antiquity.
Recipe information
Yield
6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add the rice with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover, and simmer slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked and the water absorbed.
Step 2
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the zucchini and a little salt, and boil for 1 1/2 minutes. Using a pair of tongs, transfer the zucchini to an ice-water bath. You can also microwave the zucchini for 2 minutes instead of blanching it, if you prefer.
Step 3
Sauté the onion and the pine nuts in 3 tablespoons of the oil in a sauté pan over medium heat until the onion is translucent. Stir the spinach and the raisins into the onion and the pine nuts, cooking until the greens are wilted. Then stir in the cooked rice, mixing well.
Step 4
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and grease a 9-by-13-inch tian or other baking dish with another tablespoon of the olive oil.
Step 5
Spoon half the spinach mixture into the prepared baking pan. Then lay the zucchini in overlapping layers in the pan. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle half the cheese over the zucchini. Repeat, layering the remaining spinach and zucchini, ending with the cheese. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs or panko, and drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over all. Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
