Cooking Provence style

Provence has always typified all that is special about the South of France and its cuisine is central to this charm. The wonderful climate that you experience if you are lucky enough to have a south of France property helps grow the wonderful produce that makes Provence cooking so special.

Every town seems to have a food market overflowing with fantastic vegetables perfectly ripened by the Provencal sunshine. Until you have tasted a local sun-ripened tomato you won’t realise just how insipid and plain tasting our greenhouse-grown, hydroponic supermarket tomatoes are. Even a simple tomato salad becomes a taste sensation with these wonderful fruit. Cooking Provence style food comes naturally when you have access to such a plentiful supply of fantastic ingredients.

The ‘marchés’ in France are generally open air markets, a place to shop for your fresh groceries. People prefer to buy meat, fish and produce there rather than in the supermarkets. The ‘marchés’ are fabulous, free entertainment, good for shopping and for people watching. Sit in one of the cafés next to a market and while away the morning. The Provence has probably the best markets in France. Most open air markets are farmers markets, a retail market where you can buy vegetables, fruits, cheeses, meat and poultry, sausages, spices, candied fruits, nougat and flowers. The larger Marché Provençal offers all of the farmers markets' products plus clothing, shoes, linens, pottery and many other useful and not so useful Provence knickknacks.

An absolute classic of Provence cooking and a good showcase for the sort of cheap nourishing produce that you can pick up from the market that is never too far from your South of France property, Soupe au Pistou is a rich earthy peasant soup that epitomises the sort of cooking Provence is famous for.

Ingredients

• 750 g of flat green beans
• 50 g of white beans
• 750 g of red beans
• 2 potatoes
• 2 courgettes
• 2 leeks
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 bunch of basil
• 5 garlic cloves
• 50 g of grated gruyere
• 50 g of grated parmesan
• 2 glasses of olive oil
• 250 g of pasta "coquillettes"(shells)

Preparation

Shell the white and red beans. Dice the flat green beans, the courgettes, the potatoes, the leeks and the celery.

Boil everything in 3 litres of salted water for about 1 h 30. (Don't forget to use a pot big enough)

While cooking, boil the 2 tomatoes for about 2 mn and peel them. Crush the 5 garlic cloves and a nice basil branch. Add the tomatoes and pour some thin trickles of olive oil until you have a paste.

Twenty minutes before the end of the cooking, add this paste to the pot. Check the seasoning which must be highly seasoned.

Bring back to the boil. When it is boiling, put the pasta in; then when they are cooked, add the different grated cheeses.

This soup, which should be extremely thick, must be served quite hot.

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