Ratatouille Recipe

The Ratatouille dish, popularised by the hit Pixar movie of the same name, is classically a low-frill French peasant dish. To the contrary of my first impression of the dish from the movie, "wow look at all the pepperoni!", it's made without meat, for the olden-time French families who cannot afford meat. 

Nit-pickers would say this isn't a true ratatouille, and they wouldn't be half-wrong. A Ratatouille is a traditionally a rustic vegetable stew, and when those ingredients are instead sliced and layered over a tomato-based piperade, it should technically be called a Tian Provençal. Still, a rose by any other name still tastes(?) just as sweet, so I'll roll with whatever Thomas Keller deems appropriate and leave the debate to the stuffed-shirts. 

Just look at these colours

Start by roasting the bell peppers over an open flame. I can't say roasting this way makes the flavour better than compared to using a regular oven, but it definitely is more fun. Oh, you have only induction stoves at home? Shame.

In the "make-do" attitude of this dish, don't sweat it if you can't locate every ingredient and have to substitute with other local vegetables. Peasants cook this using vegetables from their gardens, and in those days when food is scarce, I don't think anyone would raise an eyebrow if a couple of ingredients are missing, or if a couple of extra turned up. 

Bruno's recipe threw in extra zippiness by way of chili peppers and poblano, a Mexican chili pepper, both of which I'd omitted in view of a more traditional approach. But he might have been on to something: I found the tomato base would do better with a little kick of spice. I see other recipes calling for red wine to the tomato base, or to top the ratatouille off with a sprinkle of cheese. And why not? Recipes are products of the land and of the era, and isn't meant to remain stagnant. If the olden-time peasants had ready access to other vegetables, or if they could afford Italian cheeses or red wine, well, they certainly would have used them. Looking at all the variation of ratatouille recipes across time, it's interesting to see how recipes change with evolving tastes and with contact to once-inaccessible ingredients. 

You can treat this recipe as a springboard for any dish that could use some sprucing up. I'm keen to revisit this dish again, using the fragrant piperade as a tomato base for perhaps minced meat, and then topping the dish off with the classical concentric circles of sliced vegetables. But I'll be calling it something else, if nothing than to to keep those snobs at bay. 

Ratatouille (Or Tian Provençal if you're stuffy)
Original recipe by Bruno Albouze

Ingredients
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Piperade

1x yellow, 1 red pepper

1 poblano pepper

1 chili pepper

1/2 onion

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1tbsp butter and olive oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 can (about 400g) crushed tomato

1tsp herbes de provence

salt and pepper, to taste
Basil, to taste

Topping

1 yellow squash 1/16 in rounds

1 zucchini

1 eggplant

3 roma tomatoes

salt and pepper

Seasoning 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1tsp thyme

salt and pepper

Steps
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Piperade

1. Roast peppers over a flame, until charred on the outside. Yes, really! Remove from heat and cover in a bowl for 15 minutes. It'll continue to steam and continue cooking. 

2. Roughly chop the onion, carrot, celery. In a large saucepan set over high heat, add olive oil and butter, and then saute the chopped vegetables for about 10 minutes. 
3. Add the minced garlic, and continue cooking for about 2-3 more minutes. 
4. Add half a can of crushed tomato, 1 tsp herbes de provence, and salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and let the mixture simmer and cook down for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. 

5. Deseed the peppers, and chop roughly. Add to tomato mixture. 
6. Puree the mixture with basil, if using. 

7. Transfer to a baking dish, and smoothen out the surface. 

Topping

8. While the piperade is cooking, slice the squash, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes into 1/16 inch rounds

9. Arrange in concentric circles and season with salt and pepper. 

Seasoning

10. Combine olive oil, minced garlic, thyme and salt and pepper. There's a lot of vegetables, so don't be shy about using more salt. Drizzle over the vegetables. 

Cooking

11. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 135C. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 3 hours. This cooks the sliced vegetables thoroughly. Remove from oven and let cool, until you're ready to complete baking the ratatouille and serve. 
12. Then remove the foil and bake uncovered at 175C for 45 mins. Serve warm.