Ratatouille

I never thought I could crave a dish that I have never eaten, nor did I think that I could crave a dish that I saw in an animated movie. But it happened… and I decided to make that dish as a tribute to Remy for being such an adorable little chef. The only thing was, I had to find a good recipe. After I did some hunting I landed on Julia Child’s Ratatouille recipe. And here is what I ended up with:

not too shabby…

Flavor- I like all the vegetables used in this but I honestly had never tried them all together in one dish. So I was a bit skeptical, but the combination of these vegetables blend so well together, it’s no wonder why this dish is so common.

Serving and Moderations– Even though there are several ways to serve Ratatouille… if you pour it on some nice bread with a drizzle of olive oil… it’s awesome. The only moderations I made to the recipe was adding a yellow squash with the zucchini just for the heck of it, but mostly for color. Also, I felt I needed to put some chili powder and cumin to spice it up a bit…and that worked out really well. I put about 1/2 a teaspoon of each.

Multi-Step Process- Julia Child’s version of Ratatouille involves a layering effect which calls for prior cooking of each vegetable before the final layering. This tends to be time consuming when you just want something quick. BUT after making it once, it won’t take as long since you won’t be going back and forth to the recipe making sure everything is correct (or is that just me?)

This “multi-step process” is not the only way to cook Ratatouille. To be honest, when I make this again I would take a shortcut and just combine all the ingredients together in one pot and let it slow cook for a while. That’s the kind of cooking I like. If you haven’t tried this “peasant dish” I think it’s worth it because not only is it healthy, it’s inexpensive and it tastes pretty darn good… comfort food French style perfect for Summer when all this produce is fresh and available.