We all found ways to cope with the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. For me that meant more cooking. Trying new recipes and creating some recipes of my own. The most memorable recipe involved, of all things, eggplant and a dish known as Ratatouille. Ratatouille is a vegetable stew that originated in France. Ratatouille is also an animated movie about a rat who can cook. I highly recommend them both.
My adventures with Ratatouille.
It started when I found eggplant at Braune Farms, the local farm we visited each week during the lockdowns.
I had never explored cooking eggplant much. I enjoy Eggplant Parmigian but I'm not fond of making it. I made an Eggplant Lasagna with the first eggplant I bought last year. And it was 'OK.'
Then I had the idea to research Ratatouille. Someone I knew had mentioned making Ratatouille, so I decided to dig in.
Rather than look in any of my many cookbooks, I went to the internet to find a recipe. And tried the first one I found.
It called for first roasting the eggplant and other veggies. Which meant heating the oven in July! In South Texas! It also called for using whole tomatoes run through a food processor. I made this a couple of times, adding mushrooms the second time around.
The results? I wound up with a vegetable soup. There was a LOT of liquid in the dish and that is where all the flavor was.
That's when I started doing serious research. I started with Julia Child and her book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Which is quite possibly where I should have started since I was making a French dish.
That's when I began to understand the true nature of Ratatouille. The difference between a soup and a stew.
Think about your beef stew, it has very little liquid in it. The same is true of a good Ratatouille!
The Challenge
So, I challenged myself to come up with my own recipe for Ratatouille.
My goal was 3-fold:
To create a Ratatouille dish that truly was a vegetable stew.
To have a recipe that was as simple as possible, by minimizing the preparation time and the clean up time. Ratatouille is not something you can throw together quickly, but I wanted to reduce the time wherever possible.
To have a recipe that did not require heating the oven and kitchen in the middle of a Texas summer.
I consulted four different recipes in all, choosing parts of each recipe. Julia Child’s recipe was on the top of the list, but I also referenced my mom’s favorite cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, as well as 2 other cookbooks.
Preparation
The first step is to prepare the eggplant and zucchini. You slice them, salt them and then leave them to sweat for about half an hour. The salt helps to pull the moisture out. After 30 minutes, you dry them and then chop them. This is an important step since we are making a stew. Too much moisture and you’re back to making soup.
Meanwhile, you can dice your bell peppers and onions. And mince the garlic.
And peel, seed, juice, and chop the tomatoes. This is a messy step but so worth it. You wind up with just the tomato pulp without all of the extra moisture.
Once they're all prepped, you can refrigerate until about 30 minutes before you start cooking. Preparation takes time. In fact, it took about 1.5 to 2 hours to prepare all the veggies, though that depends on the quantity you choose to make. I found that it was easier to prepare the veggies in the morning and then do the cooking later in the day.
Cooking
Cooking is actually the easiest part. Some recipes called for layering the vegetables and a lot of attention during the cooking process. I opted for a simpler plan because that's the way I like to cook. Total cooking time is another 1.5 to 2 hours. That includes an hour where the stew is just stewing, leaving you free to do other things.
The best part of this recipe is the flavor. I was thrilled from the first bite. All the flavors wound up in the veggies.
My Ratatouille recipe turns out to be fairly flexible in terms of quantities and also the veggies you add to the dish. As long as you keep in mind the moisture content of the veggies you add.
I do not recommend adding mushrooms as they give off a lot of moisture when cooked! I tried this early on but then realized that mushrooms were not a good choice.
Ratatouille also freezes nicely. I froze some in 2 serving quantities and was delighted months later to find them in the freezer!
Your Challenge
If you like to cook and are willing to spend 3 to 4 hours making Ratatouille, I promise you will not be disappointed.
I need to add one caveat: All or most of the vegetables I used were from a local farm. Summer is the time when eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes are all in season. I have found that farm fresh produce is more flavorful than anything you find in the grocery store.
In fact, a friend of mine tried my recipe using store-bought veggies and was disappointed in the results. That could be the best reason for eating local and seasonal!
Ratatouille, The Recipe
Ingredients
Onions - 1 or 2
Garlic - 2 or more cloves
Eggplant - 1 or about 1 pound
Tomatoes - 2 - 4 pounds
Zucchini - about 1 pound
Bell peppers and/or banana peppers - 2 - 4 of each
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp oregano
2 tsp fresh basil OR 1 tsp dry (or more, depending on veggie quantities)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or more, depending on veggie quantities)
1/2 tsp sea salt (or more, depending on veggie quantities)
1/4 tsp black pepper (or more, depending on veggie quantities)
Parmesan cheese for serving
Here’s a little video I made of the process of preparing for Ratatouille:
Preparation
Preparing the vegetables can be time consuming, up to 1.5 or 2 hours depending on quantities and your style. I like to prepare all the veggies in the morning then take them out of the fridge at the start of cooking.
Tomatoes: Peel, Seed, Juice & Chop
To Peel -
Boil a pot of water.
Cut an “X” in the skin at the bottom of each tomato.
Blanch the tomatoes by immersing them in the boiling water, in groups if necessary, for 1 minute.
Immediately immerse in a bowl filled with ice and water.
The peels should be loose and you can easily remove them.
To Seed & Juice
Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, not through the stem.
Gently squeeze each half over the sink to extract the seeds and juice from the tomato.
To chop - cut into pieces approx 1/2 inch square.
Eggplant and Zucchini - salt to remove excess moisture and dice
Slice the eggplant into rounds, approx 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
Slice the zucchini lengthwise, approx 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
Lay the eggplant and zucchini on a rack that is over a towel or a sheet pan.
Salt the veggies, turn over and salt the other side.
Let sit for 30 minutes. You’ll begin to see moisture welling up on the veggies.
Dry the eggplant and zucchini pieces.
To chop - cut into approx 1/2 inch pieces.
Dice the peppers
Remove seeds and veins from the peppers.
To chop - cut into approx 1/2 inch pieces.
Dice the Onions
Peel the onions.
To chop - cut into approx 1/2 inch pieces.
Mince the garlic
Storing the veggies
If you’re preparing the veggies in advance, put them in containers with lids and store in the fridge:
Combine the garlic and onions in one container.
Combine the peppers, eggplant and zucchini in another container.
Put the tomatoes in a separate container.
Cooking
If the veggies were prepared in advance, take them all out of the fridge at the same time.
Pour the tomatoes into a colander over a bowl to allow them to drain.
Heat the 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat until hot - approx. 3-4 minutes.
Add the garlic and onion to the pan. Sauté with occasional stirring until the onion is transparent. Approximately 5 minutes.
Add the zucchini, eggplant, and peppers to the pan. Stir.
Cover and cook slowly for about one hour. (I set my cooktop to 3 on a scale of 1-10)
Add the oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, sea salt & black pepper.
Add the tomatoes. Stir.
Simmer uncovered until the mixture is thick. (10-20 minutes)
Serve with Parmesan cheese, if desired. And a good focaccia bread.
NOTES:
Ratatouille is a vegetable stew. As such, it has very little liquid. None is added and the liquid in the veggies is minimized. If you choose not to follow the directions for minimizing the liquid, you’ll wind up with a vegetable soup instead of a vegetable stew. Thus, all the flavor will wind up in the broth and not in the vegetables.
Veggie quantities are flexible and are usually based on the quantities on hand or available. As written, this recipe makes approx 10 cups of stew.
It turns out that all of these veggies are in season together.
You can choose to add other veggies, but keep in mind the relative moisture in them. Mushrooms, for example, are not a good choice because they are high in moisture.