Recipe no. 50 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 34.
Ingredients
- butter or oil
- an onion sliced in julienne
- the white of a leek sliced in julienne
- 2 sliced carrots
- a few ribs of celery, sliced
- a litre of water
- 2 crushed cloves of garlic
- about 250 grams of poutins or poutines
- salt, pepper and saffron
- a few handfuls of thick vermicelli (optional)
Preparation
- Browning the vegetablesBrown the onion, the white of leek, the carrots and the celery, sliced, in butter or oil, avoiding letting them take on colour.
- MoisteningMoisten with the water and add the crushed garlic and the small fish called poutins or poutines.
- CookingSeason with salt, pepper and saffron, and let cook a quarter of an hour.
- VariationSome add, at the same time as the fish, a few handfuls of thick vermicelli.
Reboul's text
It is hardly anywhere but in Nice and in the neighbouring localities that this soup is prepared.
It is a dish made use of by fishermen in particular, but one that also finds many enthusiasts in Provence.
Put to brown in butter or oil in a saucepan, an onion and the white of a leek sliced in julienne, with 2 carrots and a few ribs of celery likewise sliced.
Avoid letting them take on colour; moisten with a litre of water, and throw in 2 crushed cloves of garlic and about 250 grams of those little white fish called poutins or poutines.
Season with salt, pepper and saffron, and let cook a quarter of an hour.
Some people add, at the same time as the fish, a few handfuls of thick vermicelli.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul himself gives certain Provençal names in this recipe: poutins, poutines. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the other words used, in mistralian spelling: each of these forms is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary, and the link opens the entry. Our dictionary do not yet attest the words poutins, poutines: we therefore quote them as the author printed them, without adding a form of our own.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| Julian | julienne |
| pòrri | leek |
| pastenargo | carrot |
| àpi | celery |
| aiet | garlic |
| safran | saffron |
| verlichèlli | vermicelli |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 50, page 34. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.