There are a variety of recipes for Ratatouille and the ingredients often change from cook to cook, but most contain eggplant (aubergine), garlic, onions, zucchini (Italian squash or marrows), and bell peppers. Usually the recipe is seasoned with Herbes de Provence, but (as in this recipe) it can be as simple as parsley and basil. Often the individual vegetable components are cooked separately in olive oil, but I like this recipe that cooks the vegetables together.
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To begin, assemble the ingredients: 6 garlic cloves, 5 medium button or brown mushrooms (I prefer brown for more flavor), 1 medium zucchini, 5 sprigs of Italian parsley, 4 sprigs of basil, 1 medium onion, 1 can diced tomatoes (or 2 tomatoes peeled, seeded, and diced), chicken or vegetable stock (we'll need 3/4 cup or 180mL), 1 Tbs. tomato paste, 1 medium green bell pepper, and 1 large eggplant (about 1 pound or 450 g). Drain the canned tomatoes.
Wash and scrub all the vegetables. Remove the parsley and basil leaves from their stems. Dice the green bell pepper, eggplant, and onion. Quarter the zucchini lengthwise then slice into 1/4-in. (1/2 cm) segments. Quarter the mushrooms. Chop the parsley and the basil.
Start cooking by heating olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and saute until the garlic smell intensifies, about one minute.
Add the diced onion and continue to saute until they turn translucent, about 4 more minutes.
Once the onions are translucent, add 1 Tbs. tomato paste. The tomato paste will be in a clump and will take a bit of stirring and pressing to get it to spread out and cover the onions and garlic.
As you work at spreading the paste out and mixing it with the onions and garlic, the paste will cook and darken in color. Once some of the paste starts to stick to the pan and brown, it's time to add the stock (about one minute).
Pour in 3/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock and stir until the broth begins to simmer. Using your spatula or utensil, scrub the bottom of the pan to release any browned bits of garlic, onion, or tomato paste.
Add the diced eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and mushrooms. Stir to combine thoroughly and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring every couple minutes to promote even heating.
The eggplant will release a lot of liquid (slowly) into the pot and it's in this liquid that you'll want to simmer the other ingredients in. To evenly cook all the ingredients, you'll have to stir it to make sure the vegetables spend time touching eggplant liquid. As a bonus, the flavors mix amazingly well during this process.
The eggplant will mostly be falling apart at this point, but the zucchini, bell peppers, and mushrooms should be tender but not yet mushy.
Add the diced tomatoes and stir in. After about a minute, the tomatoes will have heated through. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting.
Stir in the chopped parsley and basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.Although ratatouille is usually served hot, we love eating this dish cold (usually at room temperature) with freshly toasted slices of a baguette especially during the summer.
Ratatouille (serves 4 to 6)
| 2 Tbs. olive oil | saute until aromatic over medium heat (1 min) | saute until translucent (4-5 min) | mix in and cook until color deepens (1 min) | deglaze pan | simmer, stirring often until vegetables are tender (10-12 min) | stir in and heat until warm (1 min) | stir in and take off heat | season to taste | |
| 6 cloves garlic | mince | ||||||||
| 1 medium (200 g) onion | dice | ||||||||
| 1 Tbs. (16 g) tomato paste | |||||||||
| 3/4 cup (180 mL) chicken or vegetable stock | |||||||||
| 1 large (450 g) eggplant | dice | ||||||||
| 1 medium (140 g) zucchini | quarter & slice | ||||||||
| 5 medium (100 g) brown mushrooms (cremini) | quarter | ||||||||
| 1 medium (150 g) green bell pepper | dice | ||||||||
| 14-1/2 oz. (411 g) can diced tomatoes | drain | ||||||||
| 5 sprigs Italian (flat-leaf) parsley | chop | ||||||||
| 4 sprigs Basil | chop | ||||||||
| salt & pepper | |||||||||
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Here's the trailer and a 10 minute featurette.
Thanks! I fixed that error.
It is often served cold in Provence, and I like to do that, too.
I like my rat flavored with rosemary, instead of basil, if anyone is interested in variations on this recipe.
When you do it with eggs and paprika it is called piperade it is a recipe from the basque country.
Also, on the subject of ratatouille--we're hosting a contest over at Recipe4Living. Whoever submits the best recipe wins free movie tickets, so if you're interested, feel free to enter!
Also, if you dice the eggplant, sprinkle generously with salt, let sit for 1/2 hour, then rinse and bake or cook, then it will draw out the moisture and stay more firm.
I've salted eggplant before to reduce the bitterness and it never seemed to work as well as suggested. After some experimentation, I now believe that salting eggplant serves the purpose of firming up the structure of the eggplant flesh so it retains its form better during cooking. This practice also helps mask the bitterness a little, but the bitterness is not greatly reduced. The practice of salting eggplant was probably practiced to firm up the flesh (as it is in many recipes) and then later was attributed to reducing bitterness. The real secret is to just buy young eggplant (at least the common and asian varieties are not bitter when young). Older eggplants (they feel lighter/hollower and may have skin that is more shriveled and not tight and plump) tend to be much more bitter. Some other varieties of eggplant may also tend to be bitter too. Avoid these for this dish.
If you wish the diced eggplant to retain their shape more in this dish, then spend the time to salt them (slice them into rounds and sprinkle salt on them and let them sit on a wire rack set in a sheet pan for 1 to 2 hours). This should draw out some of the liquid (you'll see a little bit in the pan if you're lucky) but mostly serve to draw moisture out of the cells and into the gaps between them. This helps prevent the eggplant from soaking up an excessive amount of liquid and oil which leads to their falling apart. At this point, just rinse off the excess salt and dice.
This is the recipe Thomas Keller developed for confit byaldi (rattatouille) that appears in the movie.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/131rrex.html?ex=1184558400&en=246c44656ea4e8ff&ei=5070
Another thing to try - if you have the time - cook all the ingredients separately (with exception of mushrooms and garlic - great together) - only combine with the tomatoes at the end, a great tip from Keith Floyd, makes for a great flavour.
One last thing - never, ever forget a good healthy dose of red wine :-)
But, why would anyone ever saute their minced garlic [u:cac403ae2a]before[/u:cac403ae2a] their onions? Any good chef will tell you that your garlic will be apt to burn especially in an olive oil which boils hotter than some other oils (like vegetable, canola, and others).
And, while we're on the topic of saute and flavour, you might want to experiment with a very small amount of sesame oil - it also boils very hot but it adds a beautiful aroma to the ratatouille.
Happy cooking, y'all.
This bothered me when I read it, but I didn't respond because the comment wasn't worth dignifying with a response. Any good chef would know how to saute their garlic before onions without burning the former. My mom often cooks this way--its gives the garlic time to release a deeper flavor, as my chef-instructors in cooking school taught me. And if there need be anymore proof, I give you an excerpt from the venerable James Beard's Beard on Food as he delivers his own Ratatouille recipe to his readers:
First, heat 1/2 cup oil--it can be olive or peanut oil, but olive oil definitely gives the best taste--in a heavy skillet and very gently saute 5 finely chopped garlic cloves. Add 1 1/2 cups chopped onion, and let that melt down and blend with the garlic ...
I've cooked your recipe a few times, always with the garlic first, as directed, and never burned my garlic once. Watch your temperature, and push the garlic around as needed--easy as that. Thank you for your recipe--it's awesome!
That's an All-Clad Stainless 8-qt. Stock Pot. One of my favorite pots to cook in - lots of space and high sides that keep messes contained. Thick aluminum clad with stainless makes it easy to see if food is browning and evenly heats so nothing burns - even when I stop stirring to take pictures.
Regrads, thank you for the recipe anyway, and sorry about my english.
Au revoir. Martin.
I made it last weekend and it was great. I don't understand about the "flour wrapper" though.
By the way, if anyone is under the illusion that the rat quickly knocked this out, there must have been several bottles of wine imbibed by the patron while he was waiting for this dish. It takes quite a while to make. Although it is very simple, there is a lot of prep work and it cooks a long time.
Being both an engineer and a good cook, I could imagine the flavors building and blending into one great dish as I read the receipe. I would like to write more but my stomach is growling, my mouth is watering and I am on my way out the door to buy the ingredients for tonights dinner...ratatouille. :lol:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confit_byaldi
I love the site, the recipes are easy to follow and ingredients are simple!
As a frustrated engineer and would be cook I love your site
That doesn't make sense. How does merely evaporating the water out of the eggplant remove the bitter component that will remain in the pan? And once you add other liquids, it will be reinfused into the moisture.
From the responses I've read and from my experience, I think the salting will work, if you are patient and remove enough liquid. That means you need enough salt. You can actually take the eggplant and squeeze it as hard as you want, like a sponge, to get even more of liquid out. This is more appropriate for when you want to deep-fry eggplant, but it will get lots of moisture out.
salting the eggplant to remove water has another effect: slices / pieces maintain their shape and consistency better vs. going to mush when cooked.
same with sliced cucumbers in german cucumber salad - slice, salt, allow to stand & drain water keeps them crispier & crunchier.
A good substitute for parsley is finely cut, fresh celery leaves to be used in small amounts as it is stronger tasting than parsley. Concerning the bitterness of the aubergine it is less so if one uses new or fresh ones, also I neutralize the bitterness by adding slices of apple on top of the aubergine when cooking the ingredients the way Remy did
I happened to make Ratatouille the other night, and had really excellent results. The recipe I used did not use broth - and alternately used fresh tomatoes and no stock of any kind. Also - after browning the onions and eggplant, and adding the rest of the veges the cooking was finished in the oven with an herb garni. I'm sure there are 100s of variations on this, but have you ever tried it this way? My results were very stellar.
"still" = "stick", correct?
"still" = "stick", correct?
Stick is correct. I've correct the article.
(SICR)
Hahahaha. Yep, another typo caught! I have not corrected this one. :)
don't know about sugar, not done that
but salt causes "stuff" to lose moisture - salt cured meats, etc.
natrium did a pretty good job on Egyptian mummies . . .
salt reduces spoilage - as in meats by less water to aid rot & pH changes which discourages the bacterial bugs.
for stuff like cucumbers the extracted water leaves the remaining cells crisper over time.
the exact bio-<whatever> / chemical reactions are not my expertise . . .
We are an engaged couple and Ratatouille has a special meaning for us since it is the first movie that we have gone together ;)
I think it will be our special meal during our marrige :)
And it sounds good to mcook this delicious meal with your love :)
If you don't like mushrooms, substitute with three pieces of crispy bacon crumbled.
Add several 1/4 cup of merlot about 5 minutes before you finish cooking and top each serving lightly with fresh parmesan -asiago mix cheese.
Or, substitute mushrooms with three pieces of crispy bacon crumbled.
This is a wonderful recipe! There is a traditional dish in Bulgaria that is very similar, except that there are no mushrooms and the peppers are baked as somebody suggested. Nevertheless I am trying yours and I am delighted!
THANK YOU!
1. Sautee half the eggpalnt in olive oil by itself, and add with the tomatoes. (allows for some identifiable - and VERY tasty eggplant)
2. Use white wine instead of the broth
3. Serve with shaved parmesian and crusty french bread
Bon Appetit!
No musrooms, no broth(yikes salt/sodium who needs that?). is a very inexpensive and nutritious dish and Is French of course!
send me an e-mail and i explain 2 you how to make it look like a very expensive dish. then add the expensive wine. artista00@yahoo.com :D
but one thing I've noticed on all the articles online that I've search is that:
-mostly veggie
-very flexible dish
but the cooking time, is it too long considering that veggies tend to lose their potent(or vitamins+minerals) if heated too long?
so i decided to try it out although i have NEVER eaten eggplant before. i don't know how ratatouille's supposed to taste, but i thought it was excellent. i didn't do any sweating of the eggplant and i tasted no bitterness at all. instead of pairing it w/ a bagguette(didn't buy any at the time), i toasted some sourdough bread instead and it was fantastic. my husband doesn't usually eat veggies and thought it was really good. LOL
so i give it 2 very enthusiastic thumbs up. :oD
Wow, much anger... please refer to the recipe summary table at the bottom of the article.
I'm from India and found this recipe super. I use a lot of eggplant - in other dishes - and have never found the need to remove "bitterness". Eggplants, in my experience - are just not bitter! And salting / sugaring / rinsing would remove a lot of the nutrients - particularly the iron, wouldn't it?
The one thing that i DO know is that no one cooks eggplant in iron saucepans - traditionally.
Cheers!
p.s. my husband is an engineer - and he approves of this format - but he's a terrible cook otherwise!!! ;)
I doubled the quantity and followed your recipe with these minor variations:
1. I happened to have a handful of toasted pine nuts, which I tossed in when I added broth. They turned out to be a perfect addition. They add a whole new dimension to the dish but are absolutely organic with all other flavors.
2. This is a traditional Eastern European twist on the dish: serve it with a dollop of good sour cream.
Today, since there were not enough leftovers for dinner, I added some roasted potatoes to the dish while reheating it. Potatoes change the nature of the dish making it heartier (or some might say heavier) but I like this way too.
Thank you for this recipe. I will make it again.
Someone mentioned eating ratatouille with scrambled eggs. That reminded me of a Middle Eastern dish called shakshouka (transliteration varies--it's pronounced shock-SHOO-ka) that is eggs poached in stewed tomatoes and often eaten with French fries aka chips--great cheap lunch. If you served it with some nice bread or rolls instead of the chips it would pass for brunch food.
Also, as I discovered (and so did at least one other reader) there are two kinds of ratatouille. One, which I've made before, is essentially roasted vegetables--and includes potatoes. This looks to be the stew kind, and I'm going to try it.
And I love the confirmation code, too!
I just wanted to add that "shakshouka" is actually a Nothern African dish not a Middle Eastern, and usually made without mashrooms, but definitely scrambled eggs.
It is exactly that combination (of salt and sugar) we use in seasoning salmon to make 'locks'. Putting this combination on raw salmon pulls all the moisture out of it. Here in Denmark, Locks/Lax are called 'gravid lax.' In the old days, when there were no refrigerators, Danes would salt and pepper their fresh-caught salmon, put a weight on it, and bury it for several days. ('Gravid' = Grave in Danish.)
It is exactly that combination (of salt and sugar) we use in seasoning salmon to make 'locks'. Putting this combination on raw salmon pulls all the moisture out of it. Here in Denmark, Locks/Lax are called 'gravid lax.' In the old days, when there were no refrigerators, Danes would salt and sugar their fresh-caught salmon, put a weight on it, and bury it for several days. ('Gravid' = Grave in Danish.)
I have made Ratatouille before but not with mushrooms.
I didn't put mushrooms in and I substituted Iltalian Seasoning for
the herbs....Delicious!
In general, the long, narrow kinds of eggplants found all over Asia have no bitterness and need no salting. The large, bulbous kind generally need to be sliced, salted, and pressed to remove brown, bitter juices before rinsing and using them.
I do not salt/drain my eggplant. When selecting globe eggplants, pick heavy eggplants with firm skin. Perhaps I've been lucky, but I've never bought a bitter one... I have had bitter eggplant at other people's houses and at restaurants and my only guess is that older eggplant may develop a bitterness that needs to be dealt with. The problem is that the bitter eggplant that I've had have all been salted, etc. so I'm currently of the opinion that it's just best to buy fresh eggplant and dispense with the whole salting operation. I've not yet done experiments on this though.
two things on the bitterness associated with eggplant - first, modern varieties have much less tendency to get bitter, and second - it's an age thing. younger, smaller, not hollow sounding to a thump are my guidelines - with salting/draining not required.
the salting/draining is actually not some 'old wives tale' - in my grandmother's younger days, it was true and required. she lived to 95 and was heavy duty into gardening and cooking. the eggplant has improved <g>
PS For years, I spelled it phonetically: "RAHTAHTOOWEE" While in France, I discovered how it was supposed to be spelled. Thanks to you and to Disney for bringing this wonderful experience to all of us Paisants.
absolutely.
I garden and often have a big surplus of green bell peppers. wash slice dice freeze on a flat cookie sheet on in a thin layer. once frozen, bag'em for storage.
although I'm not a "hot pepper freak" I've found banana peppers nicely warm - do the same with them except just sliced vs diced.....
do not just slice and/or dice and put in a bag for freezing - it takes longer to freeze, they get soft(er) and you have just a single frozen mass. freezing in a thin layer lets you break up the chunks so you don't have to use the whole bag in one go.
FANTASTIC!!! YUMMmmmm
Thanks.
hmmmm, perhaps texture but in the flavor department,,, not really [g]
there's a lot of of flavors in the dish - it does not turn out like "egg plant puree" so to speak - I would encourage you to try it. I don't stock eggplant either - I buy one when I want it.
buy small ones - bigger is not better in eggplant - it should be firm and have a smooth skin - no dimpling / wrinkling - that's past its prime.
I always peel mine - I don't care for the skin strips in my dishes.
for substitutions the first thing that comes to mind is zucchini - I suspect fairly thick slice (half inch or so) and watch the cooking time as zucchini goes to mush pretty quick when overcooked.
I had to improvise a little as I recklessly assumed tomato paste and sauce were the same deal.
This bothered me when I read it, but I didn't respond because the comment wasn't worth dignifying with a response. Any good chef would know how to saute their garlic before onions without burning the former. My mom often cooks this way--its gives the garlic time to release a deeper flavor, as my chef-instructors in cooking school taught me. And if there need be anymore proof, I give you an excerpt from the venerable James Beard's Beard on Food as he delivers his own Ratatouille recipe to his readers:
... very gently saute 5 finely chopped garlic cloves. Add 1 1/2 cups chopped onion, and let that melt down and blend with the garlic ...
While James Beard was a prolific author, entertainer, and promoter, he is not often held up as an authority on chemistry or terminology. The words "saute," "melt," and "gently" do not in any sense go together. The first poster is quite correct that if you saute garlic first and continue at that heat, it will burn. It should be clear that the author of the article was merely using the wrong word, and was actually sweating in oil.
Perhaps instead you could have found fault with the original poster's suggestion that olive oil "boils" hotter than canola--I assume that he meant flash point--as only the vilest grade of olive oil has a higher flash point than canola, and if we're sweating, we're not close to the flash point anyway. As any good cook would know.
For a white, I would suggest viognier -- Yalumba makes a good bottling for about $10/bottle. Their Eden Valley is even better.
Looks like I got a little carried away...
Til one long and frustrating night
When, driving myself screwy
To find a good ratatouille,
Your site popped and I saw the light.
Then I noticed a whole other list
Of your dishes that I almost missed,
Now my repertoire’s grown
With your help alone –
And this cook is constantly kissed.
Til one long and frustrating night...
That was an awesome poem/compliment! Thanks!
I pretty much followed this recipe exactly as is except I put the onions in first and then the garlic. This allows the garlic to have less cooking time in the oil and not be burned. I wonder what other variations this dish could have. Any thoughts?
Just wanted to say, great recipe ! I had everything prepared, then something urgent came up. (ha, being a mom...) So I just dumped it all in my crockpot and left it on high for 4 hours; it turned out amazing !!!
It was just a bit too liquid, so next time I'll cut the broth in half (or add cornstarch like I did this time)
I served it over pasta with cheese melted on top. Great way to pass vegetables to picky eaters. Especially since the eggplant totally disappears, No-one knew that they were eating the weird purple thing everyone eeewwwed at and poked when it came from the market... LOL
Ka pow it was great
it's the base for most dishes in the filipino culture, and if you do it right (low heat, etc) the dishes taste amazing. it's not exactly a secret...
Also, once everything is chopped up, my 8-year-old son was able to make it easily, with supervision of course :-> The only thing I would change is that I would put the eggplant as the first veggie and let that cook for awhile until it gets soft, then add the rest of the ingredients. That way, the other ingredients won't turn to mush as well...although, I did like it mushy like this, especially to dip the bread in, but it doesn't look as pretty as your picture.
By the way, I followed everything exactly as you have it listed and it really was yumbo! Thank you so much for this!
heehee. indeed an economical dish!
Female eggplants have more seeds and a more bitter flavor. Conversely, male eggplants have fewer seeds and are much less bitter. Female eggplants tend to need to be salted and have the exuded moisture removed, while male eggplants don't.
To tell the sex of an eggplant, look at the indentation at bottom. If it's deep and shaped like a dash, it's a female. If it's shallow and round, it's a male.
It is often served cold in Provence, and I like to do that, too.
Yeag, mushrooms are not in the cannon. But, to be honest, it might be a good option.
however, it's easy to mess the ratatouille, unlike something like a soup, although in a cartoon the guy managed to do just that and the rat was fixing it)))
Love this cartoon
By the way someone may have some interesting suggestions on a soup ? I'm currntly trying to recreate Panera Bread Creamy Tomato Soup from the recipe in the link, but it's not really my style. Maybe I'm doing something wrong
https://youtu.be/NGKJAgLF78c
If the link doesn’t work the video is called:
Over cooking vegetables on purpose.
The ratatouille recipe would benefit from the technique in this video.