Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Ratatouille - More like Ratatou- OUI!

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to write a post about what I made for Christmas dinner this year. I know, I'm totally late. But you know how when you get on Pinterest after any holiday and see all the great things you could have done had you seen it before the holiday? Yeah, this is kind of like that. But it's ok! Rataouille is not strictly Christmas - it's any time of the year. 

If you haven't seen the movie Rataouille, go get it. It's such an adorable movie, and it's very clever and well done. So, from the movie Ratatouille, they make this version of ratatouille. Some clever person out there already put together a recipe for it here. My brother emailed the link to me before Christmas and he said we simply had to make it. We ended up making it for Christmas dinner simply because that was the only night that we were both home that didn't already have a meal planned. 

Have you ever seen a blue heron? They are gorgeous, huge, majestic animals. And then they open their mouths. (Just in case you don't believe me: here's some evidence). Herons look pretty, but sound ugly. Ratatouille is just the same. Sounds ugly, (I believe the movie calls it "rat patootie" at one point), but looks absolutely beautiful. 


As beautiful and sophisticated as it looks, it was so easy to put together! The original recipe uses a mandolin, which would have made it even easier. I didn't have one, so I just had to use a knife and cut finely. 

Here's what I did:
1 cup tomato puree
6 garlic cloves (because we had 6 people, and my rule is 1 clove per person)
1/2 onion, chopped very finely
2 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
2 zucchini
1 eggplant
2 yellow squash
2 red bell pepper
pepper
rosemary
herbes de provence 
goat cheese, for garnish if you want

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Pour tomato puree, garlic cloves, and onion onto bottom of dish, then stir in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. At this point, I added in some black pepper and herbes de provence (add as much or as little as you like). 

Cut all of the veggies into very thin slices. If you're not sure if you're cutting thin enough, cut thinner. 

Arrange the veggies in any sort of pattern you like in the dish on top of the tomato sauce. I arranged my dish in a circle pattern (the one on the right), whereas my brother did two rows (the dish on the left). Both turned out delicious, so it doesn't really matter. Keep in mind, ratatouille is a peasant dish. You think peasants had time to sit around arranging veggies in a pretty manner? No. If you don't even want to arrange the veggies, I'm sure it would even taste good with just throwing everything in the pot and cooking it. 

When you're done arranging (or not), add in the herbs and spices you like, and then drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Cover with parchment paper. Bonus points to whomever can tell me what parchment paper actually does.

Bake for 45-55 minutes. It will be done when the tomato sauce is bubbling around the veggies. 

I served mine with some herbed chevre (from Trader Joe's!). 

This was a perfect Christmas dinner for my family because we often eat so much at the holidays that it was kind of nice to have a healthy meal. This followed an antipasti, and was followed by cookies and brandy alexanders. Don't worry, my family and I did not starve. This recipe was also perfect because clean-up was pretty simple, and it cooked long enough for me to run upstairs, grab a shower, and look presentable for dinner by the time it came out of the oven.


I hope you enjoy making this dish as much as I did. It's a lot of slicing, but the product is so pretty and fancy that I think it's worth it. 

Bon appetit! 

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