Provencal Vegetable Pie

This is a dish of three parts comprising a vegetable filling in a tomato sauce covered with a french bread topping.

Notes

Despite the many ingredients and much prepping, this recipe is really hearty and tasty. Remember that when cooking on a residential there are plenty of people who are willing to help.

This is a dish of three parts comprising a vegetable filling in a tomato sauce covered with a french bread topping. If there isn't an oven at your accommodation you could probably still make this using a hob and grill.

Serves 8-12, depending on greed level.

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce

• 100g butter
• 2 onions peeled and chopped
• 4 garlic cloves chopped
• 4 x 400g cans plum tomatoes
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• generous pinch of dried oregano

For the filling

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 red onions peeled and sliced
• 2 small fennel bulbs diced
• 4 courgettes diced
• 2 x 400g cans flageolet beans
• 250g pitted black olives chopped
• 2 tbsp capers

For the topping

• 2 sticks french bread
• 180ml - 12 tbsp - extra virgin olive oil
• basil - fresh or dried
• parsley - fresh or dried
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 50g grated cheddar or parmesan

Method

For the tomato sauce

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onions and garlic and cook gently for about 10 minutes until softened.
2. Add the tomatoes with the tomato puree and oregano. Cook, uncovered, over a low heat for 25 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce is thick and pulpy and season with salt and pepper.

For the filling

1. Preheat oven to 200C /Gas Mark 6
2. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the onion and fennel and fry gently for 10 minutes or until softened. Add the courgette and fry for a further 5 mins.
3. Stir into the hot tomato sauce, together with the flageolet beans and their liquid, the olives, capers and seasoning to taste.
4. Transfer to a lightly oiled baking dish (or 2) and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes

For the topping

• Slice the bread so that it will cover the vegetables in the baking dish(es).
• Mix extra virgin olive oil, herbs and garlic in a bowl, remove stew from the oven, dip the bread slices into the mixture and arrange overlapping slices on top the vegetables to form a crust.
• Scatter the cheese over the bread crust and bake for a further 15 minutes.