Last weekend Ratatouille was on TV and by no means was that the reason why I was obsessed with perfecting my ratatouille all week. The movie is about a food loving mouse with a dream of becoming a chef and oddly I can relate to the little guy. He just wants to cook!
Our kitchen has been overflowing with red, ripe tomatoes, long Chinese eggplant, zucchini, and peppers of all kinds. They are practically begging to be made into vegetable stew, and in this case ratatouille, a French stew from Provence.
My dad’s garden has turned into a jungle, bearing tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, collards, and more. I wonder what my neighbors think when they see me carefully posing tomatoes on top of eachother outside their window. The tomatoes in particular are so full of flavor I almost wish this horrible, bad hair day enducing weather would last all year round. Look at the color on these bad boys!
These peppers were bought at a farmer’s market, however we do have some growing out there. As of late we’ve been frying up Italian and Padron peppers much to my delight. This stew creates wonderfully earthy flavors. Try to get fresh herbs if you can. They really make all the difference.
Ratatouille
Many people have different ways of cooking ratatouille. The great thing about vegetable stews is that there is always room for change and personal preferences. If you have left over eggplant include it even though the recipe may call for a little less. Make it the way you like it. This particular recipe is adapted from the French Culinary Institute.
Ingredients
1/2 medium onion
2 medium tomatoes
1/2 green pepper, medium diced
1/2 red pepper, medium diced
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 eggplant, medium diced
1/2 zucchini, medium diced
Herbs
Thyme
Bay leaf
Peppercorns
Parsley and stems
Basil
Place a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and let it get hot before you throw in your diced onions. Add salt to the onions to allow them to sweat. Lower the heat and cook for about 5 minutes until the onions start to get a little translucent. Now add your diced peppers and let them cook for another 5 minutes until they are soft.
Now you will need to peel and roughly chop your tomatoes. You can stick them in boiling water for a minute in order to facilitate the peeling process. Remove and strain the seeds and save the tomato juice.
Once your peppers are cooked you can add your chopped tomatoes. After a couple minutes add the tomato juice as well as your herbs. The herbs should be wrapped in a cheese cloth but you could also use a tea pouch. Let the mixture simmer on a low heat while you cook the zucchini and eggplant in another pan.
Before you cook your eggplant you need to disgorge it. In order to disgorge you need to apply salt which will make the excess water come out of the eggplant. Once the water is extracted you can add the eggplant to a pan of hot olive oil and cook until brown. Set aside. Next cook the zucchini the same way.
Mix in your zucchini and eggplant into your tomato and pepper mixture. Let everything cook for about 15-20 minutes allowing the flavors to really build.
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