Recipe and photo by Cat Bude
This summer vegetable tian looks impressive, but it’s surprisingly easy to make. The key is slicing your vegetables evenly—use a mandoline if you have one, or a sharp knife if not. You’ll arrange the slices tightly into a spiral or layered pattern, then roast them over a base of arrabbiata sauce. The result is a dish that’s light, colorful, and full of flavor. You can serve it as a vegetarian main or alongside grilled meats. It’s flexible, forgiving, and a great way to use whatever summer produce you have on hand. This recipe is from French Kitchen Lessons by Cat Bude, a book filled with unfussy, seasonal recipes and stories from life on a farm in Normandy. You can find it here.
“This dish is a beautiful celebration of the garden in an elegant presentation that is deceivingly simple to create. Referred to as a tian, it features neatly layered baked vegetables. If you have a mandoline, it is an essential tool to cut the vegetables to uniform thickness, but this can also be achieved with the use of a very sharp chef’s knife. The amounts of each ingredient are flexible, but the more variety in color the better. Be prepared to experiment with arranging the slices of vegetables; this can be done in a round or rectangular roasting pan. The goal is to cut the vegetables in equal-diameter slices so they cook evenly and make a lovely spiral or layered shape.”
Tian of Summer Vegetables
Ingredients
- 2 cups (480 ml) Arrabbiata Sauce
- 2 small zucchini
- 1 yellow squash
- 2 medium eggplants
- 3 large jarred roasted peppers, quartered or cut into wide slices if whole
- ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil
- 2 tablespoons pesto
- 2 tablespoons jarred sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
- grilled meat or sausage, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Cut the vegetables into uniform sizes. You will want to pack them in tightly in the pattern that you choose, since they will shrink slightly while cooking. Once you have all the vegetables cut into equal thickness and diameter, I find it helps to “dry fit” them into the pan just to see if you need to add more or less of any one type.
- Using an 8- to 10-inch / 20 to 25 cm round baking pan or deep pie dish, begin by adding the arrabbiata sauce to the bottom of the pan. Then add the zucchini, squash, and eggplant in a layered or circular pattern. Once you have a uniform pattern, push the roasted pepper slices in between the vegetable slices to fill the gaps.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F / 160°C.
- Mix the oil with the pesto and drizzle over the vegetables. Fill the gaps between the layers with drained sun-dried tomatoes.
- Place the pan in the oven and roast for 1 hour, then check the tenderness of the vegetables and overall browning. You can add more time, checking in 10-minute increments. If you think the dish is becoming too browned, you can finish the final cook time by covering the pan with aluminum foil. Serve warm with grilled meat or sausage if you wish.
Excerpted with permission from French Kitchen Lessons: Recipes & Stories from Normandy’s Rabbit Hill Farm by: Cat Bude published by Hardie Grant Books, October 2024, RRP $40.00 Hardcover.