Nice specialty
Visit nice and taste Nice specialty
Going on vacation to Nice is an opportunity to discover the city's culinary specialties. Authentic Nice cuisine is a blend of Mediterranean and Provençal flavors. Taste tradition by meeting local producers and treat yourself to delicious moments. The restaurants of Nice will help you discover the good Niçoise recipes which smell of the sun and the aromas of the south.....
La Socca " The socca"
Socca is a culinary specialty made from chickpea flour from Liguria. It comes in the form of a large, thin pancake cooked on large round tinned copper plates in a pizza oven.
pissaladière
In addition to the bread dough, the pissaladière is mainly composed of a bed of onions which must be cooked for a long enough time over very low heat to “compot” (90 min to 2.5 hours of cooking depending on the variety) and taking care to avoid any browning. Bread dough and onion can be enough, but real pissaladière cannot be made without pissalat, a kind of salty paste or cream made from salted sardines and anchovies, which also gave its name to the speciality
the stuffed niçois
Great ambassadors of Nice cuisine across the country, stuffed vegetables were, before becoming a preparation in their own right, a clever way to prepare leftover stew, roast or stew. Today, the stuffing can be simply made with sausage meat or homemade, with a mixture of meat(s), bread soaked in milk and possibly chard. You can also add a little rice to the stuffing but be careful, in Nice, it's only for tomatoes! This stuffing will then enhance all the sunny vegetables: eggplant, zucchini, pepper flowers, bell peppers, etc... Please note that small stuffed cabbages represent another specialty in themselves, for which we fill kale leaves with stuffing which we fold to reconstitute a small cabbage: lou capoun. In Grasse, we use a fassumié (a sort of small fillet), to best carry out this operation and constitute lou fassum, a local variation of the stuffed cabbage recipe.
niçois olives
The olive has been present in the Alpes-Maritimes region for more than two millennia. The centuries-old olive groves and the remains of ancient oil mills bear witness to the region's olive-growing past. The Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans developed this culture first in the coastal area and the coastal hills, then their successors extended it inland. After experiencing a sharp decline after the Second World War and the climatic disasters due to the frosts of 1929 and 1956, olive growing in the Alpes-Maritimes was structured and revived. A single variety of olive reigns supreme in the Nice region, it is the “Cailletier” better known under the name “Nice olive”. This variety of olive is in fact well adapted to the Maralpine climate and terroir. The Nice region has only one olive under protected designation, the Nice AOP olive. This high-quality olive is renowned for the 99 communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department which are under this AOP. The farmers of the Nice region cultivate 95% of the “cailletier” variety, a very fruity olive, of great finesse and with variations in color characteristic of this species ranging from yellowish green to brown or wine-colored to purplish black. . This variation in color is characteristic of heterogeneous fruit maturity. It should be noted that the olive is an inedible fruit in its raw state because of its bitterness. The fruit must undergo more or less thorough debittering depending on whether the olive is picked green (at the beginning of ripening) or black (at maturity). This debittering can be done with water, wood ash or salt, as tradition dictates.
Zucchini flower fritters
Zucchini flower beinets are an Italian specialty, which is however found in Provençal cuisine in the Nice region and in the Balkan countries. This recipe is made from zucchini flowers that are wrapped in donut batter and fried.
niçoise salade
Niçoise salad is a culinary specialty of traditional composed salad of Niçoise cuisine, to this day widespread throughout the world in multiple variations and adaptations. It constitutes one of the main starters of Provençal and Mediterranean cuisine, even a meal in its own right.
the niçoise stew
An emblematic dish of Provençal cuisine, daube comes from the Provençal word adobar, meaning “to prepare” or “to arrange”, referring to the stewing of meats in the traditional daubière. In addition to the “classic” Provençal stew, each region, and even each family, has its own variations. The Niçoise stew has the particularity of incorporating porcini mushrooms and being flavored with branda, the Provençal grape marc brandy. Then we find the beef (prefer a mixture of different pieces in order to obtain a better consistency), the salted meat, the red wine, the carrots and the tomatoes as well as the different ingredients and aromatics. Little secret: as with any slow-cooked dish, stew is always better after at least one reheating! Remember to prepare a large quantity that you will simmer again to melt with pleasure.
La tourte aux blettes "chard pie"
Chard pie (la torta de blea in Nice) is a culinary specialty from Nice made from chard, which can be served both as a savory dish and as a sweet dessert. Despite the presence of chard, it is a pastry, eaten cold or warm. Finely chopped chard leaves are mixed with, among other things, pine nuts and raisins. The pie is most often served generously covered with icing sugar.
La tourte aux blettes "chard pie"
This emblematic dessert of the Nice region has existed since the Middle Ages. Indeed, at the time there were many recipes for “herb pies”, both sweet and savory pies, in which leafy vegetables such as spinach or chard (called herbs) were used. Over the centuries, recipes evolve and become more and more delicious. For example, in the 18th century we found a pie made from spinach, sugar, almonds and candied lemon peel. Even though there were a multitude of recipes for herb pies, it was the chard pie that became the emblem of the city of Nice and its region. The dough for this pie is made with egg shortcrust pastry. Rich, this paste is appreciated for its texture and its light grain in the mouth. This pie is garnished with chard mixed with various ingredients, such as raisins soaked in rum and pine nuts which give a sweet flavor to this dessert.
Carnival donut
It's party time, the carnival is in full swing in Nice and during this time, we're getting dressed up. This recipe should be taken as a simple basis because everyone can modify it according to their tastes and desires. There are as many variations as there are cookers. It's a delicacy "ganes are essential in Nice cuisine which also bear the name of mervilles.