ratatouille two ways
On Sunday my family watched the movie "Ratatouille". It was brilliant, guffaw out loud funny, with great animation and rats-eye-view scenes that were clever and fresh. Those people at Pixar have just scads of imagination and they're putting out some of the best movies for any age, IMO.
On Friday, two days before I even knew we were going to watch the movie, I baked a ratatouille. Ratatouille is the ultimate answer to the question "what the heck do I do with all these vegetables from the CSA". And can I just say, cold ratatouille for lunch with a sprinkle of goat cheese and parmesan breadsticks is simply *awesome*. It's more a procedure than a recipe, behind the cut.
Film the inside of a lidded casserole with olive oil. Cut your vegetables into slices about a quarter inch thick. The classic combination of vegetables for ratatouille would be eggplant, zucchini or yellow summer squash, green pepper, onion, tomato, with lots minced garlic (I use two big heaping tablespoons of the jarred kind). If you have fresh herbs, include them too. I've used basil and sage, again because that's what I'm getting from the CSA. I don't have any green peppers so I've been doing without and it's still come out great. I've also been using Italian-style canned stewed tomatoes in place of fresh tomatoes, because fresh ripe garden tomatoes are so treasured at my house that they are eaten up almost immediately after pickup day, and I'm usually making ratatouille in desperation to use stuff up as the next pickup day approaches.
Anyway, layer your vegetables, minced garlic, and fresh herbs in the oiled casserole. It's OK to mound the vegetables right to the top or a little over because the vegetables will shrink by about a third. Drizzle about 1/4 cup of olive oil over the vegetables, cover with the lid, and bake in a 350 oven for an hour or longer, until the vegetables are tender. A couple times in the last half of cooking, take the casserole out of the oven to check tenderness and press down on the vegetables gently with the back of a spoon. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold. Cold is my favorite!
On Friday, two days before I even knew we were going to watch the movie, I baked a ratatouille. Ratatouille is the ultimate answer to the question "what the heck do I do with all these vegetables from the CSA". And can I just say, cold ratatouille for lunch with a sprinkle of goat cheese and parmesan breadsticks is simply *awesome*. It's more a procedure than a recipe, behind the cut.
Film the inside of a lidded casserole with olive oil. Cut your vegetables into slices about a quarter inch thick. The classic combination of vegetables for ratatouille would be eggplant, zucchini or yellow summer squash, green pepper, onion, tomato, with lots minced garlic (I use two big heaping tablespoons of the jarred kind). If you have fresh herbs, include them too. I've used basil and sage, again because that's what I'm getting from the CSA. I don't have any green peppers so I've been doing without and it's still come out great. I've also been using Italian-style canned stewed tomatoes in place of fresh tomatoes, because fresh ripe garden tomatoes are so treasured at my house that they are eaten up almost immediately after pickup day, and I'm usually making ratatouille in desperation to use stuff up as the next pickup day approaches.
Anyway, layer your vegetables, minced garlic, and fresh herbs in the oiled casserole. It's OK to mound the vegetables right to the top or a little over because the vegetables will shrink by about a third. Drizzle about 1/4 cup of olive oil over the vegetables, cover with the lid, and bake in a 350 oven for an hour or longer, until the vegetables are tender. A couple times in the last half of cooking, take the casserole out of the oven to check tenderness and press down on the vegetables gently with the back of a spoon. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold. Cold is my favorite!