Ratatouille

You have to thank Disney for making this dish a household name. Prior to releasing their beloved rat-turned-chef movie, I don't think anyone West of Manhattan new anything about this dish. But now, it's something that is well known from coast to coast. Leave it to American's love of Hollywood to introduce them to something new. I have two recipes on here. One was adapted from the New York Times version (version two below), there are other versions out there, but this one is pretty good. NYT ratatouille.  The other one is a little simpler (version one), and a lot prettier.  This is the one I prefer making. Make 'em both and see which one you like better. 

ratATouille version one

​Ingredients
Veggies:
  • 2 medium eggplants
  • 6 roma tomatoes
  • 2 yellow squashes
  • 2 zucchinis
Sauce:
  • ​2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
  • 2 TBSP chopped basil
Herb Seasoning:
  • 2 TBSP chopped fresh basil
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • 2 TBSP chopped, fresh parsley
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme
  • 4 TBSP olive oil

  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Directions
  1. It's veggie time! Slice the eggplant, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini into 1/16 inch rounds with your mighty mandolin.
  2. Make the sauce: 
    1. Heat olive oil in oven safe pan (the is the pan you will be cooking the ratatouille in later, so a dutch oven or something like that is good.
    2. Sauté the onion, garlic, and bell peppers, then add the crushed tomatoes
    3. Stir
    4. Remove from the heat, then add the basil
    5. Stir, then smooth the surface with a spatula.  If you didn't cook this in the pan you are using for the ratatouille (and honestly, it's often easier not to, then put the sauce in THAT pan, and then smooth it.
  3. Arrange the sliced vegetables in an alternating pattern that pleases the eye on top of the smoothed sauce. Start on the outside and make a ring, and work your way to the inside.
  4. Salt and pepper lightly, the herbs are coming.
  5. Make the herb seasoning:
    1. Mix everyone from the herb seasoning list together in a small bowl.
    2. Spoon the seasoning over the vegetables.
  6. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
  7. Uncover the pan and bake for another 20 minutes.
  8. Fiddle with this until you eat it and you're taken back to the days when your mom would make this after you played outside in a field. If this doesn't happen, then try, try again.​

ratATouille version two

Ingredients
  • 2 white onions
  • 2 zucchini
  • 2 eggplants (or one large one)
  • 3 red bell peppers (or other sweet ones)
  • 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • 6 sprigs of fresh thymes
  • 1 cup of olive oil
  • 2 large heirloom tomatoes
  • 2 small bay leaves, halved
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
​
  
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Directions
  1. It's veggie time!
    1. Smash and peel 3 of the garlic cloves.
    2. Half the onions, then slice into 1/4 inch thick pieces
    3. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch thick rounds (where did I put that Mandolin?)
    4. Cut the eggplant into 1 inch cubes
    5. Cut the peppers into 1/4 inch thick strips and rid them of their seeds.
  2. Spread them onto separate backing sheets (really) with the onion and garlic together.  If you are special enough to have fresh thyme and rosemary, then add one rosemary and 2 thymes to the pepper, eggplant, and zucchini pans.
  3. Sprinkle them with salt and drizzle with 3 TBSP of olive oil.
  4. Put them in the oven and cook until just browned at the edges, shaking every 20 minutes along the way. Then behold the reason for the many pans:
    1. Peppers will take 35-40 minutes
    2. Eggplant and zucchini about 40-45
    3. Onions take the longest at about 1 hour.
  5. While everyone is in the oven, set out a bowl of ice water
  6. Boil a separate pot of water, add the tomatoes until their skins split, about 10 seconds. Use a holy spoon to transfer them to the ice water.
  7. Once cooled, peel them, halve them, seed them (saving the juice if you can), then dice them.
  8. Finely mince the last garlic clove.
  9. Put the garlic, halved bay leaves, and 1/8 tsp salt in with the tomatoes.
  10. Once the veggies are done cooking, put them on one baking sheet or a baking dish and mix them together with the tomato bowl contents.
  11. Cover with olive oil (about 1/4 cup) and then sprinkle with salt.
  12. Cook for 1 hour in the oven, stirring every 20 minutes or so.
  13. Remove from the oven, salt, pepper, and enjoy.