The Celebration of Bienvenu

The Village of Le Michels

My mother lived the book A Year in Provence years before it was written let alone a destination on any tourist map. Months before my older brother was born, my father (an Algerian born Frenchman) bought a home – sight unseen by my mom (a New Yorker with a knack for languages) – in a small French Village in Provence, France. There were 27, mainly elderly, inhabitants of Les Michels, France when my parents moved into the fixer-upper that predated the French revolution.

My mom tells the story that “The villagers were viticulturist – a fancy word meaning they grew wine grapes.” (Proof that wine is in my blood.) “They also grew table grapes, some fruits and vegetables.  In so many ways the people of the village were directly out of a book by Marcel Pagnol.  They were wealthy but you never could have guessed that fact.  As a matter of fact when we remodeled our house to make it a home, several of the villagers decided to install indoor plumbing!” It was 1966 after all.

I think the prospect of a shared village grandchild to spoil coupled with my mom’s natural gift of language sprinkled with a healthy dose of curiosity sweetened the locals temperament towards my mom.

Once I was born, four years later, it was like we had been there for generations. My earliest memories are of going from house to house in the village and being handed sweets at every door. And those memories are wrapped in a warm, fleece blanket of comfort and safety – her name is Tata Elvire. 

She was our housekeeper/nanny/auntie and became a dear friend of my parents. She took my brother and me to her farm where we ate fresh, hot French bread that created a mountain of crumbs as we bit into it. The bread was slathered with homemade butter and sprinkled with chocolate that was served to us with milk that I watched her heat up on the stove from a cow we milked moments before.

My mom still keeps in touch with Tata Elvire and although my brother and I are grown, and she is in her late 80’s, we will always be “mes petits,” my little ones, to her.  

From left
Yeyette, another family friend, my mom, my husband, Tata Elvire and me (pregnant with our 1st kiddo).
Le Michels, France in 2003.

The village was invited into my parents’ home to share in our celebrations and my mom was invited into their kitchens. In one of the most universally understood languages – that of food grown on their own land and every ingredient prepared by hand – my family was shown hospitality and love. They were farm-to-table before it was a catch phrase used on expensive restaurant menus.

“Late summer would bring a plethora of vegetables. Cases of roma tomatoes were made into homemade tomato sauce, abundance of red fruits were soaked in alcohol from the wine coop to make ratafia and the colorful vegetables were made into Pistou.  In Provençal Pistou means Basil, so you can guess the main ingredient of this soup.” As my mom recalls.

Pistou is a wonderfully simple, fragrant and comforting soup. For my mom, I suspect that a single whiff brings her back to being that late 20-something, very pregnant woman who was far from home with a village full of people ready to welcome her into their homes at their table and in their hearts.  

Here’s the recipe as my mom learned if from Tata Elvire.

Pistou a la Provencal

Ingredients:

*Try to go as organic as possible for the best flavors.

• 4 zucchinis sliced about an 1/8 of an inch thick
• 2 Chinese eggplants diced into bite size pieces 
• About 1 /2 pound flat string beans cut in approx. ¾ inch segments
• 2 -3 small to medium size potatoes cubed
• 3-4 tomatoes peeled and squeezed into the pot (I use a small can of crushed tomatoes)
• 1 small can of Cannellini beans
• 1 small packet of vermicelli
• Thyme (about a teaspoon full)
• Garlic, French bread, Basil, Olive oil, grated cheese preferably Gruyère.
• Salt and Pepper to taste.

What to do with the ingredients:

1. In a large soup pot put in 3-4 diced cloves of garlic and sauté them in no more than 2 tablespoons of olive oil until they start to turn brown.
2. Add the potatoes and stir so they are coated with the oil and garlic.
3. Add 12 cups of water and bring to a boil.
4. Add the tomatoes and eggplant and bring back to a boil.  Then add the string beans, zucchinis, cannellini beans, and Thyme.  The soup should not be watery.
5. When the soup is ¾ of the way cooked, add the small packet of vermicelli.
6. Once the vermicelli is cooked, peel 2 -3 cloves of garlic and crush them with a good size branch of fresh basil using a mortar and pestle if you have it. If not, crush garlic and basil on a cutting board using the side of a chef's knife. Transfer garlic and basil to a bowl and slowly add 2 – 3 soup spoons of Olive Oil to form a liquidy Ailoli. 
7. Cut up the French bread in thin slices.  The soup is served with the French bread in the soup with the Ailoli mixture on top of the bread and the grated cheese on top of it all.

This soup is thick and hardy and served with a salad makes a lovely meal.