Ratatouille an end-of-summer sensation

(Ratatouille is a summer dish that can be served over pasta for a satisfying meal)

The end of summer is the perfect time to make a batch of Ratatouille.
Eggplant, squash, tomatoes and peppers are abundant these days, and along with onions and garlic, make up the list of ingredients for this simple, satisfying dish.

(Eggplant is the star of ratatouille — you can even see it smiling for the camera)

I have plenty of tomatoes, peppers and zucchini from the garden, but my eggplants did not produce this season. Fortunately, a nice couple my husband and I know who are gardeners had an abundance of eggplant and generously shared some with us — both white and Japanese — the regular eggplant, complete with a "nose," I bought at the farmers market in Poughkeepsie.

(Remy, voiced by Patton Oswalt, appears in a scene from the animated motion picture "Ratatouille"/Gannett News Service photo)

Of course, Remy would argue that he's the real star of "Ratatouille"!


Ratatouille makes a great side dish, a filling for an omelet or crepe, a sauce over pasta or served cold as an appetizer.

Today's Busy Cook page in the Journal features a recipe for this classic dish.

I made a big batch of ratatouille over the weekend and served it over pasta. I also froze a large container, which will make a quick meal some night when no one feels like cooking.

Ratatouille is easy to make, but it's a little different from making a vegetable stew in that you don't want to overcook the vegetables.

Here's what you'll need for a large batch:

Ratatouille

1. 4-5 small eggplants, cubed
2. 3 medium zucchini (use both yellow and green), cut into chunks
3. 3 medium bell peppers (use a combination of green, red and yellow for a nice touch), cut into chunks the same size as the squash
4. 3 large ripe garden tomatoes, cubed
5. 1 large onion, diced
6. 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
7. extra virgin olive oil
8. salt and pepper
9. fresh basil, parsley

Cube the eggplant and sprinkle it with a little salt and set it to drain in a colander in the sink.

(Cook the eggplant separately, taking care not to overcook it)

Leave it to drain while you prep the other ingredients.

Pat dry the eggplant cubes and heat some olive oil in a large skillet. You can toss a clove of garlic in the oil for extra flavor. Let the eggplant cook until browned but not mushy.

(Grilling the zucchini before adding it to the saute mix gives it a bit more flavor)

In a large Dutch oven, saute the garlic in olive oil. Add the onion and allow it to sweat a bit. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the bell peppers.
I quickly grilled the zucchini and then cut it into chunks before adding it to the onion/garlic saute.
Next add the chopped tomatoes and allow the mixture to come together for a few minutes.
Add a few leaves of fresh basil and parsley.
Let this mixture saute until the tomatoes start to break down, then add the eggplant cubes, scraping in all the oil and drippings from the skillet.
Give the ratatouille a good stir and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
Taste it and see if it needs a little more salt and pepper.

Serve as a main dish over pasta with some crusty bread and a nice glass of Chianti.

I thought the following information from The Associated Press about making ratatouille was interesting. How the vegetables are cut and cooked makes all the difference in the outcome of this dish.

Size matters when making a great ratatouille

The Associated Press

In Provence, every grandmother worth her Dutch oven has a ratatouille recipe that family members swear is unsurpassed.
But in the U.S., this divine stew of late summer and early fall vegetables too often is a victim of kitchen sink syndrome, resulting in a sloppy hodgepodge of ingredients lacking focus and definition.
“The first thing people don’t understand is that ratatouille consists of very specific vegetables, not just what you have in your refrigerator,” says Mediterranean food expert Clifford Wright.
“It’s as if you are making clam chowder and started adding beans,” he says. “It’s no longer a clam chowder, but a bean soup.”
Historians have traced ratatouille’s origins to the French coastal town of Nice early in the last century. It entered the American culinary lexicon thanks to Julia Child and Gourmet magazine, then became firmly entrenched last year after Disney turned the recipe into a movie.
Done well, it tastes as good warm as cold and is versatile enough to be a side, starter (its true intention), nestled inside an omelet, or paired with crusty bread, pasta or meat and offered as an entree.
Ready to ditch the kitchen sink and do it right? Here’s what you need to know.

THE VEGETABLES

Though many Americans have come to think of ratatouille as just a fancy name for vegetable stew, traditional versions call for specific vegetables — onions, garlic, zucchini, squash, green peppers, eggplant and tomatoes.
Within this mix, chefs mix it up by using different colored peppers and squash, but that’s where the improv should end. Other flavorings are limited to fresh herbs, such as thyme, basil and bay leaves, and extra-virgin olive oil.
And while everyone knows fresh is best, in ratatouille it’s more than just a shopping tip. The older and larger a vegetable is, the more water it contains. During cooking and on the plate, that water will seep out, watering down the flavors and turning the ingredients to mush.
That’s why chef Thomas Keller, who consulted on the movie “Ratatouille,” recommends avoiding large eggplants, zucchini and squash. Small and medium vegetables will have a lower water content.
As for tomatoes, in addition to adding flavor, they also serve as a binder, cooking down into a paste as the dish simmers. A blend of beefsteak (which stand up to long simmers) and plum (which thicken as they cook) is best.

THE PREP

The most time-consuming part of a ratatouille is cutting the vegetables. And that’s because size matters.
Each vegetable cooks at a different speed, so cutting each to the optimal size to ensure even cooking — and cooking that is evenly paced with the other ingredients — is important.
Generally speaking, the faster a vegetable cooks, the larger the pieces it should be cut into. Likewise, vegetables that take longer to cook get cut into smaller chunks.
For example, Jacques Pepin suggests cutting squash larger than eggplant, which takes the longest to cook. Because the tomatoes mostly melt down anyway, size is less of an issue.
And because eggplant can be bitter, once you’ve got it cut it’s a good idea to give it some time to drain. This is done by sprinkling the pieces with salt, then letting them rest on paper towels or in a colander. This also prevents the eggplant from absorbing too much oil during cooking.
While it’s not crucial to seed the tomatoes, Keller says doing so allows for greater control over flavor. The seed area contains significant amounts of water and can add bitter flavors.
Keller also urges removing the tomato skins, which can lend an unpleasant texture.

THE COOKING

There are two common approaches and neither works well for the home cook.
The traditional method sautes each vegetable separately, then combines the ingredients over low heat to allow the flavors to blend. This approach accommodates different cooking times for different vegetables, but is time-consuming.
The alternative often is to dump everything in the pan together. While this does save time, it also invariably leaves some vegetables overcooked and some undercooked.
Better is to borrow a bit from each method.
By following Pepin’s advice and cutting the vegetables according to the speed at which they cook, it’s possible to divide the ingredients into two batches (one slow, one fast) and cook them in two pans.
Finally, ratatouille is a dish that needs time. Cooking the combined ingredients over low heat for roughly an hour allows the vegetables to tenderize (but not become mushy), some of the water to evaporate, and the flavors to meld.
If there still is too much liquid at the end of an hour of simmering (more than a few tablespoons is too much and will water down the flavors of the dish) drain most of it before finishing with extra virgin olive oil.