Elizabeth Bard’s Recipe for Petits Farcis Stuffed Tomatoes and Zucchini
Beef · Main Course · Provencal Recipes · TasteThis delicious summer recipe comes from Elizabeth Bard’s latest book, Picnic in Provence: A Memoir with Recipes, which we published with her permission. The stuffed vegetables can be served as a lunch or light dinner.
Stuffed Tomatoes and Zucchini Légumes d’Été Farçis
This dish instantly transports me back to Jean’s garden — big, bright beefsteak tomatoes and croquet-ball-size round zucchini stuffed and baked to sagging perfection. Lovely for a casual dinner in the garden. Serves 8 as a light dinner
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 slices slightly stale bread sourdough or dense whole-grain
- ⅓ cup milk
- 4 ripe Beefsteak tomatoes 10–12 ounces each
- 4 round zucchini 7–8 ounces each - see note
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large red onion chopped
- 1 cup fennel chopped (about ½ bulb), with some fronds
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- ½ tsp herbes de Provence
- ground black pepper
- 1 handful flat-leaf (Italian) parsley chopped
- 1 large egg
- 1½ pounds pork sausages use Toulouse, saucisse fraîche, or Italian, sweet or hot varieties
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ cup white wine
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Put the bread and milk in a small bowl to soak.
- Cut the tops off the tomatoes and hollow out until you have about a ½- to ¾-inch shell. Chop the pulp and reserve with the liquid.
- Hollow out the zucchini as you did with the tomatoes. Chop the inside zucchini flesh and reserve in a separate bowl. Place the hollowed-out vegetables in a large ovenproof dish, preferably one pretty enough to bring to the table.
- In a medium frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sauté onion, fennel, and zucchini pulp for 5 minutes, add garlic, and sauté for 3 minutes more. Add chopped tomato pulp, herbes de Provence, and a grind of black pepper; simmer for 5 minutes. Add parsley and stir. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- Squeeze a bit of the excess milk out of the bread, chop into coarse crumbs, set aside. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg.
- Remove sausage meat from its casings and break it up without overworking the meat. Add the beef, bread, and tomato mixture and combine — I use my hands for this part. Then add the egg and give the stuffing a final mix. Divide the stuffing evenly among the vegetables. Drizzle with the additional 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the white wine to the bottom of the dish.
- Cover the dish tightly with tinfoil and bake 1½ hours, until the sausage is cooked through and the vegetables are perfectly tender; the saggier the better, as far as I’m concerned. Remove the foil and pass under the broiler for 3 minutes to brown. There will be quite a bit of yummy sauce at the bottom of the dish.
- Serve on a bed of quinoa or wild rice. Pass a bowl of sauce.
Notes
Tip: Round zucchini are sometimes available at farmers’ markets and high-end grocers. If you can’t find them, buy one extra-large zucchini or two medium ones, cut them in half lengthwise, and hollow them out like a hot dog bun and stuff them according to the recipe. Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
More Provencal Recipes with Tomatoes
Tomato Confit - A Fundamental Ingredient
Tomatoes intensify and sweeten after long, slow cooking. I use the same technique for all tomatoes, whether sweet cherry tomatoes or the meatier Romas.
Check out this recipe
Blistered Cherry Tomatoes
A quick and easy way to enjoy all your fresh tomatoes!
Check out this recipe
Eggplant Tomato Gratin
A new way to enjoy eggplant cooked with fresh local tomatoes! Use a heavy baking dish like a lasagna pan or pyrex.
Check out this recipe
Cheesy Tomato Beans with Spinach and Roasted Shrimp
This dish is one that I adapted from a recent (January 2022) Bon Appétit magazine recipe. This version added the shrimp and substituted spinach for the broccoli rabe... Enjoy!
Check out this recipe
Rosé all day: wine tour with sommelier-guide and 3 winery visits in Provence
Splash of rosé here, splash of rosé there, splash of rosé everywhere. Let's explore three wonderful wine estates in the world-famous rosé area that is Provence!
Book this ExperienceLegal
All rights reserved. Perfectly Provence articles and other content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten (including translations into other languages) or redistributed without written permission. For usage information, please contact us.
Syndication InformationAffiliate Information
As an Amazon Associate, this website earns from qualifying purchases. Some recipes, posts and pages may have affiliate links. If you purchase via these links, we receive a small commission that does not impact your price. Thank you in advance for supporting our work to maintain Perfectly Provence.
Previous Post
August Village Festivals in ProvenceNext Post
Need 5 Reasons to visit CotignacRelated Provence Articles
Ratatouille Recipe a Traditional Dish from Nice
September 1, 2015
Ratatouille, pronounced ra-ta-too-ee, is a delicious vegetable stew from Nice, commonly found all over Provence and the South of France. I have to mention that it was this long before the Pixar film of the same name, and the reason I say that is that if you google “ratatouille”, the film comes up first. So …
Making The four-day daube de boeuf a recipe variation
January 23, 2015
January seems the perfect time of year for a hearty beef casserole, a warming, bold dish full of protein and lower on fat than much of the standard Christmas fayre, unless you incorporate lard into your recipe as Jacques Médecin does in his book Cuisine Niçoise. With just Explore this Post Recipes for Daube Provencal…
Braised Short Ribs a Hearty Recipe for Autumn
September 19, 2017
Braised Short Ribs is a dish that your guests will love. It is a great weekend meal, as it can be made in advance and reheated.…
For a Hearty Winter Stew try Grillade Saint Gilloise
January 4, 2022
A slow-cooked meat stew, Grillade Saint-Gilloise, might be the perfect winter recipe. A hearty meat dish, this recipe typically includes beef or bull (taureau) chuck, onions, anchovy fillets, and capers. Sometimes called agrillade, aigriade, in Arles broufade, in Provencal broufado. The key to this recipe is the long marinating time. We recommend at least overnight. …
No Comment