Having tried our today's ratatouille recipe, you will be amazed - can a dish of vegetables alone be so tasty ?! Maybe more like that! And besides - spectacular, colorful, interesting. Offer your family or guests for dinner a real French ratatouille from Nice.
“Ratatouille” is not only a famous cartoon, but also a noteworthy recipe. The dish appeared in the XIX century: the mention of the first ratatouille is contained in a culinary book published in 1778. A modern cartoon got the name of a recipe according to which chef Remy, a cute little rat, cooks his signature dish.
The intriguing name of this elegant summer recipe comes from the colloquial 'rata' - “food” in the dialect of French peasants (ratatouille was originally the food of poor farmers, because the dish is prepared from affordable vegetables, which grow in abundance in the summer in the garden). Interestingly, in English 'rat' is a rat, perhaps because of the fact that it acts as a cartoon chef.
And the second part of the word Ratatouille, 'touiller', means “stir” - because in one of the options ratatouille is cooked, cut vegetables into cubes and stirring, - like our stew. Many peoples have an analogue of the French ratatoua: the Spaniards have a pisto, the Italians have a caponata, the Hungarians have a lecho.
But in different countries and even among different chefs the dish turns out to be unequal. Ratatouille, like borscht, each has its own! A variety of spices are added to the basic ingredients - zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic. The classic version is with Provencal herbs - basil, rosemary, mint. However, you can add what you like and what grows in your latitudes - dill, parsley, arugula ... Also, plus eggplants began to be added to the vegetables listed above, which only won the dish.
There is a difference not only in taste, but also in the method of serving ratatouille. The simplest option is to cut the vegetables into cubes. But it is much more interesting and effective to cut them - that is, cut them into thin circles and put them in rows or in a spiral. And the usual “stew” immediately turns into a restaurant dish!
It is convenient to use a slicer for slicing, but if there is no one on the farm, it is possible to cut the vegetables with a sharp knife.
The important thing is that all the vegetables need to be picked up with the same diameter, even ones - then they will be easy to cut into the same circles, and the dish will turn out beautiful.
Ingredients for ratatouille
(depending on the size of your baking dish):
- 1-2 zucchini or young zucchini;
- 1-2 small eggplants;
- 5-7 tomatoes.
For tomato sauce:
- 4 medium tomatoes;
- 1 onion;
- 1 sweet pepper, better - red;
- 1 hot red chili pepper - optional;
- salt, sugar, ground black pepper to taste;
- 1-2 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
And also:
- a bunch of parsley;
- 1-2 cloves of garlic.
Zucchini choose small, so that the skin was thin, and the seeds - small. Tomatoes for cutting fit not too ripe: stronger ones are easier to cut into thin circles. But for the sauce you need very ripe, soft tomatoes.
Method of cooking ratatouille
Cut eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes into circles of equal diameter, 2-3 mm thick: the thinner, the easier it will be to lay out the vegetables in a circle or in a spiral, and they will be baked faster.
To make the bitter taste of eggplants disappear, and the slices become flexible, we add circles and leave for 10 minutes, then rinse with water.
While the blue ones are brewing, we will make tomato sauce for ratatouille. Peel the onions and chop finely. Rinse Bulgarian pepper, clean from the tail and the core and cut into cubes.
Save onion on olive or sunflower oil until golden-transparent state.
Add chopped sweet pepper to onions and continue to stir-fry over low heat, stirring occasionally.
Turn tomatoes into a sauce: you can boil them with boiling water, then cold water, peel and cut into cubes. But easier, cut the tomatoes, grate the flesh on a large grater.
Add tomatoes to the pepper and onion, simmer, stirring for 10-15 minutes over low heat. Then add a little chopped greens, passed through a press or chopped garlic and spices: about 1/3 tsp. salts; 0, 5 tsp. sugar, a pinch of ground black pepper. The sauce is ready, you can proceed to the most exciting part - putting ratatouille!
After smearing the baking dish with vegetable oil, we will spread half of the sauce on its bottom (and we will water the finished ratouy with the second half when serving).
Now we spread on the sauce circles of vegetables, alternating: eggplant-tomato-zucchini. If you have a round shape, it will turn out beautifully if you lay out a spiral or rings, and make a flower in the center. If the shape is rectangular, you can arrange the circles in rows.
Top we sprinkle ratatouille with finely chopped parsley, basil, lightly sprinkle with vegetable oil and cover with a sheet of pastry parchment.
We bake at 180-200 ºC from 35 to 45 minutes - until the vegetables are soft (you can check the tip of the knife, carefully taking out the form and removing the paper).
In order to nicely put ratatouille on a plate, we hook the portions of vegetable circles with a silicone spatula or spoon and, holding the fork on the other side, transfer it to the plate.
Serve ratatouille with tomato sauce, garnish with greens. Tasty and warm and cool. Even without a side dish and without meat!
The only caveat - if you generously sprinkled ratatouille with butter, plus poured a lot of butter into the sauce - the dish may seem fat, then you should eat it with the addition of rice or potatoes and, of course, bread.
