Remy's Ratatouille

OK, admit it.  When you saw the end of Disney's Ratatouille movie you had the desire to make the ratatouille the way the rat Remy did, didn't you?  No, Just me?  Well, OK.  ( But maybe we can at least agree that while the movie was cute, it was also disturbing to see all the rats in the kitchen.) Thankfully there was another person on the internet that also wanted to recreate this dish and this recipe mostly comes from SmittenKitchen.  Well, no rats in this kitchen, only colorful vegetable goodness.  I've made this a couple times and it's so beautiful.  It tastes good and it's good for you as well.  

Click here for printable recipe.

The first time I made it I actually could stand up the vegetables vertical just like in the movie.  I think that this time it was a little different because the veggies were different sizes.  Still good though!

Post by: Jen

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (try to find one that is long and less fat at the end)

1-2 zucchini (try to find the fattest ones)

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper (optional)

1 yellow zucchini (or squash) (preferred instead of the yellow pepper, but I couldn't find any)

1 c tomato sauce

1/2 small onion, diced (I didn't use onion in this one because my company couldn't eat onions)

1 clove garlic, finely chopped OR 1 tsp garlic powder

3 Tbsp Olive oil, separated

2 tsp Herbs de Provence OR 1/2 tsp Oregano, 1/2 tsp Thyme, 1/2 tsp rosemary combined

Parchment paper

Goat cheese, optional

Oops, forgot the Herbs de Provence in the picture. 

Directions:

Mix tomato sauce, chopped onion, chopped garlic and 1 Tbsp olive oil in the bottom of a shallow baking dish.  I imagine you could use a glass pie plate, but I think that this recipe would make two pie plates.  Spread tomato sauce all over the bottom of the dish.

Cut off the ends of the pepper and then cut out the inside ribs.

 Thinly slice all the vegetables.  As thin as you can.  If you have a mandolin, then use it.  Slicing the peppers was a little difficult.  It's hard to keep them in the round shape.  But in the end it was fine if they were also cut in half.

 Line up the veggies in a pattern.  As you can see, some of the peppers were a bit large and the zucchini I had on hand was too skinny.  I ended up cutting the peppers in half and bending them to fit.  But I didn't have to the first time I made this.  I wish I would have taken pictures from the first time.  Oh well.  My friends even asked, "are you going to take a picture of this for the blog?"  And I said "Naw, I'll make it again later depending on how good it is." Silly me.

 Keep going all the way around.

 Then go around in the middle. And fill in your pan with vegetables.*

 Now drizzle the remaining 2 Tbsp of olive oil over the veggies and sprinkle the herbs all over.

 Cut out a piece of parchment paper the same size as your pan and place it over the top.

 Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes until you can see the vegetables are softened and the tomato sauce is bubbling up.

 This is best served warm.  Serve alone or with a dallop of goat cheese on top.  Or serve along side with couscous or rice.  This is perfect for a cold autumn evening.

*I actually had left over cut up vegetables that didn't fit in the pan.  I took the left over vegetables and cooked them in an omelet the next day. Yum.

IF you happen to have left over ratatouille, then it is super yummy in a crepe with goat cheese.