Petits Farcis Niçois

Ingredients of the  (for 8 people)

by Gael Verger

• 8 onions white or red 
• 6 zucchinis (cut in 3 parts) 
• 4 eggplants
• 8 potatoes 
• 350 g ground beef (or 600 gr beef and no sausage meat)
• 250 g ground sausage meat 
• 150 g uncooked long grain rice (I use whole or semi)
• 1 tablespoonesfresh thyme
• 2 twigs of fresh rosemary 
• 1  bunch of  fresh flat-leaved parsley 
• salt
• pepper

Prep the vegetables

Peel onions and put them in the boiling water with salt 5 min. A process is called "blancher" or blanching.  Drain them.  Wash and wipe all the vegetables, eggplants, zucchinis, and potatoes.

Cut the top of each of these vegetables and reserve their tops to place it as a hat. We are going to fill them.

Using a spoon,, small melon baller or scoop, delicately scoop out the flesh of all the vegetables (leave 1 mm from the skin to the flesh), without damaging the skin and Reserve it in a bowl.

In boiling water with salt put the swiss chard 5 min same process has for the onions (blanching).

Drain them and place between two sheets of paper towels to remove the water. 

Preheat the oven at 180°C/350F.

Prepare the rice

Cook your rice half the time recommended. The rice will continue to cook with the petit farcis in the oven.  It will absorb the extra juice of the vegetables

Prepare the stuffing

Use the vegetables that you reserved in a bowl.

Chop 2 tablespoonful of onions and all the flesh of the other vegetables that you had saved in a bowl.

Saute the onions with olive oil until translucent brownish in a large skillet. Add the chopped vegetables.  Add the sausage meat and then ground beef, when the pink of the meat is just starting to fade away remove from the fire. Add the chopped swiss chard, rice, fresh persil, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme. Mix.

Taste the stuffing before seasoning with salt & pepper

Start stuffing your vegetables. Place the saved hats on the vegetables. Put the dish in the oven for 1 hour then reduce the temperature 150 °C/300F and let it cook about 30 min more.