The “Crespeou“, which means “crêpe” in provencal dialect, is a bright-coloured typical dish from Provence. It is made from several layers of coloured omelettes, made with what is left in your fridge and cupboard : salad leftovers, canned fish, olives, roastde meat, vegetables etc. Once again, a dish for the poor! However, you will need a lot of time to prepare this dish because each layer = one omelette to cook, and the more layers, the more beautful and tasty your crespeou! As a consequence, I found a tip to make it quicker and easier: I bake it in the oven : you will need many baking dishes, but this way everything will cook at the same time and your omelettes will remain perfectly moist 🙂

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6)

• 14 fresh eggs
• Leftovers: onions, anchovies, aubergines, zucchinis, capers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, olives, etc. In a nutshell, one crespeou “level” = one omelet (2 eggs) with one leftover ingredient. For my crespeou I used 3 tomatoes, 1 handful of stoned olives, 1/2 can of capers, 5 or 6 anchovies, 5 onions, 1 aubergine and 1 zucchini.

Preparation

Preheat the oven (180°C). Bake all the vegetables separately. Personally I bake them in the oven for one hour, well seasoned with different spices and herbs: curry + mint for the aubergines, cumin + taraggon for the zucchinis, paprika + basil for the tomatoes, pepper + rosemary for the onions. This allows you to cook all the vegetables at the same time instead of one after the other in a pan, and this “dries” them (important to make the omelettes). Mix each ingredient separately (I am lucky, I have my thermomix for this…). I add to the tomatoes one can of tomato concentrate and some fresh herbes to the zucchinis to give them more colour (colours tend to fade in the oven). Add to each preparation two beaten eggs. Season to taste. Oil or cover with baking paper 7 oven dishes (or more or less depending on how many layers you have for your crespeou). They should not be too large (mine are around 15cm wide). Add your egg preparation in each one of them. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Some preparations will be moister than the others, depending on the ratio ingredient/egg, but this is normal and will create a nice overall balance in your crespeou. Let each omelette col down a bit. Oil a high dish that is about the same diameter as your omelettes. Put each of your omelette, one on top of the other, in your dish. Cover with plastic film and add something heavy on top. Store in the fridge overnight. Serve with an homemade tomato sauce and grilled meat. Wasn’t it all worth it?

With which wine?

The crespeou contains many strong flavours, therefore I recommend looking for a fruit-driven red wine. To balance the acidity of tomatoes, you will need to look for a wine with a good acidity. A chilled Morgon or Fleury would be a good option.