Ratatouille!

I was trying to decide what to make for this year's "Boss Day". I wanted to make something really good, easy to make and that I could reheat in microwave at the office, where our potluck would be served. I thought of a Disney movie I watched a while ago, where the cutest mice dreamed about becoming a chef in Paris: Ratatouille! So, I had finally decided what to make, but still had to find out how to make it.

Nothing I saw on websites resembled that structured, Technicolor dish I had in mind. Apparently, the original Ratatouille recipe looks nothing like the one in the movie. I was almost thinking about changing course (pun intended!) when I discovered Smitten Kitchen (www.smittenkitchen.com) had a Ratatouille recipe based on the movie! Perfect!

I made a few changes to the recipe posted on Smitten Kitchen and it still worked out pretty well. Here is what my dish looked like before baking:





Ingredients:

1/2 onion

3 cloves of garlic 

1 small can of whole italian tomatoes 

1 eggplant (you can use italian or japanese eggplant; I got three regular eggplants and used only the thin part of it to match the size of the zucchini and squash. I saved the bottoms for another recipe)

1 red bell pepper

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

Rosemary and Herbes de Provence (or you can use fresh thyme) 

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

Parchment Paper 

Preheat oven at 375 F.

Puree the tomatoes with onion and garlic. I used my mini-processor, which makes everything much easier and quicker. Drop this mixture in a baking dish (preferably oval or round). Season it with salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil.

Cut the ends of the squash, eggplant and zucchini. Cut the top of the red bell pepper and remove the core  carefully. You can use a sharp knife, a mandolin or an electric food slicer to slice the veggies. Using the electric food slicer allowed me to have all veggies with the same thickness (about 1/16 inches) in only a few minutes.  Set the veggies aside in stacks (like a poker game).

Arrange the veggies on top of the tomato sauce starting on the outer edge of the baking dish and alternating them to achieve that spiral-Technicolor effect. It's so pretty! Keep doing that until you have no more veggies left or no more space. Drizzle a bit of olive oil, add a pinch of rosemary, herbs de Provence and salt n' pepper.

Cut the parchment paper so that it fits perfectly on the top of your baking dish. The parchment paper is important because you don't want the top of your dish to dry out out or have burned edges. It also helps with cooking the veggies evenly.

Because the veggies will lose water and you already have the tomato sauce on the bottom, I suggest you place a cookie sheet or something else under the baking platter, to avoid spills in the oven. Let it bake for 45-50 minutes. The tomato sauce should be bubbling around the veggies when it's ready. Enjoy! 

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