Recipe no. 79 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 49.
Ingredients
- salt cod
- spinach
- oil
- onion
- flour
- milk
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
- garlic
- breadcrumbs
Preparation
- Cooking the salt codBoil the salt cod and separate the bones from the pieces, leaving them a little larger than for the brandade.
- Preparing the spinachSort a kilo of spinach and cook it 5 minutes in salted water. Drain it, refresh it, press it well and chop it finely.
- Spinach saucePut a few spoonfuls of oil and a chopped onion in a saucepan, let it brown lightly. Add the spinach and cook a few minutes over moderate heat, stirring. Add a spoonful of flour, mix well and add liquid with a litre of hot milk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let it cook 15 to 20 minutes over a low heat and, at the last moment, add 2 chopped cloves of garlic.
- Browning au gratinTake a gratin dish and oil the bottom. Put a layer of spinach, arrange the salt cod on top and spread the rest of the spinach over it. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, drizzle with a few drops of oil and brown au gratin in the oven.
Reboul's text
Boil the salt cod and separate the bones from the pieces as for the brandade, leaving them a little larger. After sorting a kilo of spinach and cooking it 5 minutes in salted water, drain it, refresh it; press it well and chop it finely.
Put a few spoonfuls of oil and a chopped onion in a saucepan, let it brown lightly, add the spinach; cook it a few minutes over moderate heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, add a spoonful of flour, mix well and add liquid with a litre of hot milk; season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let it cook 15 to 20 minutes over a low heat and, at the last moment, add 2 chopped cloves of garlic.
Take a gratin dish, oil the bottom, put a layer of spinach, arrange the salt cod on top and spread the rest of the spinach over it; sprinkle with breadcrumbs, drizzle with a few drops of oil and brown au gratin in the oven.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| merlusso | salt cod |
| espinarc | spinach |
| òli | oil |
| cebo | onion |
| farino | flour |
| la | milk |
| muscado | nutmeg |
| aiet | garlic |
| gratin | gratin |
| besuscla | to brown |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 79, page 49. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.