Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Lavishly oil a gratin dish, earthenware baking dish, or other suitable baking dish with olive oil. I did this by pouring olive oil into the dish and smearing it around with a piece of paper towel.

Parcook the potatoes by piercing each first in a couple places, then boiling, steaming, or microwaving them. They should be almost cooked through. I microwaved mine for four minutes.

While the potatoes cool, rinse spinach, if necessary, and pat dry. Roughly chop and add to large bowl. I did this in batches.

Grate Parmesan cheese directly into the bowl, atop the spinach.

Rinse anchovies, if using, under running tap. You don’t have to blast the water: just run it gently. Tear fish into strips. This should be easy to do. Add fish to bowl.

Roughly chop parsley, if using, and add to bowl.

Crush garlic, if using, and mince it, and-you guessed it–add it to the bowl.

Check the potatoes. If they are cool enough to handle, peel them. The peel should be easy to remove-I did not need a vegetable peeler. Cube potatoes and add to bowl. Don’t worry if potatoes crumble. Just do the best you can.

Crack eggs in the small bowl. Beat them just to blend the yolks. Pour into the big bowl. If you used anchovies, salt lightly–you can always add salt later. But you can’t fix oversalting. Now add about a teaspoon pepper.

Wash your hands. Now plunge them into the bowl and mix tian ingredients together. At first it may seem like the mixture won’t fit in your baking dish. Don’t worry. It will start packing down and fit into the dish.

You can use a large spoon for this step, but nobody is looking. Take handfuls of the tian mixture and place them in the baking dish. It’s the easiest way, and saves washing up.

Once all the spinach/egg/potato mixture is in the baking dish, pat it down gently. Wash your hands. Now add a little more olive oil to the top, zigzagging across the entire surface of the tian.

Add some more cheese, if desired.

Place tian in oven and bake, 45 minutes to i hour.

Tian is ready when the edges are just browning and the top just dry. It should spring back lightly when touched, like a cake. Do not overcook–you don’t want the middle of the tian browning or drying out.

Serve tian with good bread and a salad.

Covered and refrigerated, tian will hold for 5 days or so. Freezing not recommended.

Notes

I used prewashed, organic baby spinach. The stems were soft enough to use. Other greens to try: stemmed, chopped chard, mustard greens, watercress, or beet greens.

Feel free to use other fresh herbs like mint, oregano, or basil.

Gruyere or Cheshire cheese are good alternatives.

Interested readers are encouraged to consult the following four books for additional tian recipes and overall culinary excellence.

Elizabeth David  Is There A Nutmeg In The House?

Madeleine Kamman When French Women Cook

Richard Olney: Simple French Food

Paula Wolfert Clay Pot Cooking

Broadly speaking, tians may be made from greens, and may include eggs. From there, it is a question of what vegetables are in season and what you have to hand. Trying to quantify what goes into a tian is a bit nervewracking. It’s easier, perhaps to tell you what not to put in it. Avoid add potato chips. Or snack cakes. Canned veg is out. So is aquafaba, a product I do not understand anyway. Then again, the older I get, the less I understand. I believe this is called wisdom.