I had never had ratatouille before, but while organizing my DVDs, I happened upon Pixar’s Ratatouille. I was reminded by how delicious the dish looked. Granted, it was an animated movie. However, the idea to try my hand at making a similar dish pestered me for two days. Today on my lunch break, I did a search of the the internet for a ratatouille recipe.
Now, traditional ratatouille is a stew and I don’t like stews (I am not a big fan of eggplant, either), so what I was looking for was the pretty version featured in Pixar’s movie. I found what I was looking for over at SmittenKitchen with her amazing Ratatouille’s ratatouille recipe.
I think I put a little more tomato puree at the bottom of my dish then the instructions say because after it was done, some of the sauce had seeped up over the veggies along the sides. I used a circular dish, not an oval, and foil on top instead of the recommended parchment paper. I
was also quite generous with the seasoning, mixing in salt, peppercorn medley, garlic and onion powders, and parsley into the sauce at the bottom and sprinkled on top (with a nice sprinkle of thyme on top). I used about half of a regular-sized eggplant and about 2/3 of a zucchini and a yellow squash, but I guess that just depends on how big your dish is. Since I was testing out this recipe and feeding a family of one, I used my smallest oven dish.
The ratatouille smelled so good when I took it out of the oven, and it tasted DELICIOUS on top of some rice. Best of all, it is naturally vegan and gluten-free! So whether or not you (and/or your guests) follow a specific diet or have any food allergies, this is fantastic dish to serve. A perfect wintery dish that makes you feel good with the first bite, yet surprisingly healthy.
Eggplant… who knew it could actually be prepared in a way that was not only edible but delicious?