This tangy omelet hails from the French Basque country and is filled with the regional veggie dish known as piperade, a mixture of green peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic and pepper slowly sautéed in olive oil until it reaches aromatic, spicy perfection. This is a good time of year to try it out, when peppers and tomatoes are at their prime. Unsuprisingly, the omelet is also known as omelette à la piperade. It makes a nice lunch or a light supper.
Omelette basquaise / Basque omelet
Piperade takes its name from the regional word for pepper, pipèr, and traditionalists may try to tell you that only one type of green pepper will do — piments d’Anglet, which are grown in southwest France and are thinner and more tapered than standard bell peppers. But that is poppycock, in my opinion. The difficulty of finding piments d’Anglet outside the Basque region ensures that green bell peppers are generally used in Basque cuisine throughout the rest of France.
There are many variations on the recipe for a Basque omelet, which itself is sometimes known simply as piperade. Some recipes omit the garlic, which I view as essential. Many include piment d’Espelette, another regional ingredient — it’s somewhat akin to paprika, made of ground, sun-dried, rather mild red peppers. Black pepper or cayenne may be substituted. Often the omelet is served with lightly fried country ham alongside. Julia Child goes so far as to mix country ham in with the veggies — highly unorthodox!
As for the piperade, it is a bit like ratatouille, minus the eggplant and zucchini, and may be served on its own, alongside grilled meat, poultry or fish, or as a topping for pasta. A restaurant I used to go to near the offices of the International Herald Tribune served piperade alongside cod bathed in a delicious beurre blanc — a great combination.
Meantime, as we head into the new school year, I’d like to mention a site that has been a major promoter of The Everyday French Chef, which is given top billing on a page titled ‘9 Cooking Blogs to Follow for Amazing French Recipes‘. The site, takelessons.com, is currently offering live online French classes, with a 30-day free trial period. If you’d like to brush up your French, or want to dive in for the first time, this might be a good place to go.
Happy cooking.
This is high season for French tomato tart, and the good news is that producing one is as easy as, well, pie. But there’s a secret ingredient without which this tart would lose its special French identity. No, I’m not talking about the garlic, thyme and olive oil that give French tomato tart the flavors of Provence. The secret ingredient from which the tart gets its zing is … Dijon mustard. Now as you may imagine there are many variations.
Fresh summer fruit piled into dessert cups with a splash of crème de cassis makes a lovely way to end a meal. Add a smattering of mint leaves, and you have a dish that is both sophisticated and simple to prepare. You can use whatever soft fruit happens to be available. For example, nectarines, fresh figs, raspberries and blueberries, as shown in the photo. Earlier this summer I used cherries, blueberries and peaches, and won applause.
This little gem of a recipe for chilled red pepper soup was inspired by a recent visit to one of my favorite Paris restaurants, Zebulon, where it was served as a surprise “palate teaser”, with a tiny savory biscuit and finely chopped black olives on top. There were only a few spoonfuls in the tiny soup cups, but — wow — did they pack a punch. The flavor is reminiscent of gazpacho, but more sophisticated. When I got home, I had to try to make it.
This is the time of year when I’m either in the country stoking up the barbecue or dreaming of being there. At the moment, as Paris swelters through its second heatwave of this young summer, I’m still dreaming. But that won’t prevent me from making grilled chicken on wooden skewers — au contraire. It’s a perfect dish for hot summer weather, even at home, as it can be prepared on the stovetop in a matter of minutes with minimal fuss.
A light start to a meal of a warm summer’s evening is a fish terrine — in this case, a terrine of salmon, shrimp and sea scallops, with a sauce flavored with curry and dill. For years I have enjoyed the fish terrines on offer at Parisian food shops, where they beckon elegantly in multicolor slices. But I only recently began making them. And the good news is that it’s fun. It requires a French technique known as bain-marie.
When the weather turns summery, what could be more refreshing than a Greek salad, French style? It’s been so hot here in Paris recently that I’ve made several. All you need is feta, tomatoes, a cucumber, a red onion, some black olives and a little parsley or mint. Unlike the Greek version, salade grecque is generally served in France without sweet peppers or oregano, and with rosé instead of retsina. Call it an Adriatic of the mind.
Strawberries with basil and balsamic vinegar, aka strawberry carpaccio, appeared relatively recently on Paris bistro menus. The combination makes a refreshing dessert on warm summer evenings — light, tangy and sophisticated. And the real magic is that it takes about five minutes to prepare. You can also vary the ingredients, adding a few raspberries or replacing the basil with mint. Don’t tell your guests about the balsamic — let them guess.
It is surprising, in our globalized world, that we can still travel only a short distance and find ourselves in a whole new foodosphere. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Naples. The first night, at a joint straight out of a Mastroianni-Loren movie, I was served pizza with sausage and friarielli, aka broccoli rabe, which is virtually unfindable in Paris. The last day, I encountered a simple but scrumptious dish of pasta, mussels and pecorino.
I first encountered this dish a couple of years ago at 
