Ratatouille - related to the eggplant parm topic

[Mark Zeger]

Yes, I love the movie of the same name.

 

My fondness for ratatouille came from a trip to St Martin with my wife nearly 15 years ago. The hotel stay included breakfast served poolside. There was ratatouille on the buffet every morning and it was fantastic. I reverse engineered it. This is a no-recipe recipe which is how I cook.

You need:

A deep sauté pan or wide Dutch oven

Onions

Bell pepper 

Eggplant

Garlic

Zucchini

Cherry or grape tomatoes (or canned crushed tomatoes)

Dried basil, oregano, crushed red pepper

How much of each vegetable? That depends what you like, what’s in your house, or what’s in season. I use about the same amount of eggplant & zucchini. 

 

I peel & cube eggplant. Scoop seeds out of zucchini and cube. Finely dice onions & less finely dice peppers. Sauté the onions & peppers in olive oil until soft. Add garlic (minced or garlic press). Add eggplant and sauté until it begins browning. If you want to use cherry or grape tomatoes, add now and sauté until they begin opening. (If using canned crushed tomatoes, those go in later.) Add zucchini and continue cooking a few minutes. Add dried basil, oregano, & crushed red pepper (if desired, can make spicy). Season with salt. If using crushed tomatoes, add now. Here’s a controversial part: balance the tomato acid with sugar. The dish in St Martin had a slight sweetness than definitely came from sugar. Stir and stew the ratatouille until done.

 

Serving ideas:

Over Israeli couscous

In a baked potato

Topped with eggs or cook eggs in ratatouille like shakshukah

Omelet filling

Take chunks of cod and cook in ratatouille (becomes a fish & vegetable stew)

Also, if you add ratatouille to vegetable stock and beans, you’ll have minestrone.

 

This is salmon over ratatouille & couscous. I was showing off at home for my wife. I formed the stack in a resealable container. Use cooking spray in the container. Ratatouille on the bottom, couscous on top. Press down with a spoon then invert on a plate & top with fish.

 

 

[Threadslayer]

Looks fantastic. Great ideas for other applications too.

[NewImprov]

We make ratatouille every week or so in the summer when all the veggies are best, and freeze a lot. It is wonderful, especially in then middle of winter. My mom, who was from Hungary, made something similar called Lecso (pronounced Let'-cho).

[Mark Zeger]

8 hours ago, NewImprov said:

We make ratatouille every week or so in the summer when all the veggies are best, and freeze a lot. It is wonderful, especially in then middle of winter. My mom, who was from Hungary, made something similar called Lecso (pronounced Let'-cho).

My parents are from an area where their nationality was Czech, they spoke Hungarian, and it’s now inside the western border on Ukraine. My mom made lecso every week. It was a favorite of my dad.