French Ratatouille from Julia Child

Hello everyone,

You are in a process of your 15 min dinner fix, ignoring your one-year-old crying in his high-chair and yelling to him “please wait for two more min, my dear, mommy is almost done”, cutting the veggies in one bunch with the help of food processor while opening a tin of tomato sauce and dragging your foot to the fridge to quickly get a bunch of parsley (dragging, because your 3-year old is hanging on your leg asking to draw a rabbit right now, being close to a tantrum).  All the cut veggies are being quickly dumped in a skillet, canned tomato sauce is dumped on top, quick stir, heat reduced to low, cover with a lid, deal with the kids. 30 min later, when your younger one have got changed, nursed and buckled in a car seat because its time to leave, and your toddler have received the rabbit picture, you were back to stove and found out that you actually didn’t reduce your heat to low but increased it to high…Your dinner is stuck to the bottom of the skillet and half burned, parsley is still there on a cutting board, you forgot to add it and it doesn’t matter at this point. It’s just, not your day today. If it’s your day it was just the parsley and you have got quite decent Ratatouille for dinner. Decent not outstanding. Do you want outstanding? Keep reading.

We decided to celebrate my husband’s Birthday at the French restaurant and ordered the Mediterranean Mezze plate for an appetizer. We were served with warm pitta bread, olives, hummus, and Ratatouille. I have taken a piece of pita, placed a spoon full of Ratatouille on top and took a bite…Flavors have literally exploded in my mouth and I was sitting there out of breath for a minute staring at my bite. It was the best eggplant dish in my life. I have had mixed feelings. I was astonished, amazed, and almost unconscious from my new gastronomic experience and…angry. Why angry? I cook. I cook a lot. I love to cook. I have cooked plenty of eggplant dishes in my life, but I never, never got such an outstanding dish flavor wise. Why?

I was determined to do a research and find out what makes an eggplant dish jump from mediocre home-style dish to a restaurant-style exquisite masterpiece. I found the answer. It is time, friends. It is our time that we never have enough, therefore, substitute things that “must be done” with the things, “it is fine this way as well”. In our case of an exquisite ratatouille outcome, it’s the time that we agree to invest in frying each element of the dish separately and EVEN refusing to use pre-made tomato sauce (whatever is your favorite, I usually use whole tomatoes in their juices or my favorite marinara or passata. Why bother and waste time with blanching and peeling the tomatoes when we live in the 21^st century and everything is at our fingertips like already made splendid canned tomato sauces?). I have been there my friends and I am still there. Why bother if we can pick an easy way?

Because the ripest fruits are on the highest limbs.

To put your objections about lack of time to an end let ’s do some recipe organization here. There are plenty of recipes that you can fix within 5-15 min that will take your breath away both presentation and flavor wise.  You are going to encounter them here at LentenChef because firstly I am a busy mom and do not have time to cook spending hours every day, but I am the one who loves to eat delicious and healthy food, therefore, I am fishing out these miracle recipes from different sources that meet both standards. You can try our Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti or Sicilian Shrimp Po Boys. These recipes are splendid quick fix weeknight dinners for busy people.

However, there are recipes that need time, attention and lots of care. These kinds of recipes are being cooked with French Cooking radio on, a glass of wine on the countertop and your loving partner helping you to peel the vegetables because you are having a date night right in your kitchen, while kids are already asleep and you are up for some culinary adventure.

If it’s not a date night with your loving one it might be a meditation type cooking when you are all by yourself in a house and want to cook with time and care just to declutter your mind. Those who love cooking know what I mean. Some people go fishing to regain peace and unwind, some walk or hike, some do the cooking. Top notch cooking. If you never tried to unwind by cooking before, try it. With this recipe. Let me know in the comments how was it!

To sum up my idea of reorganization of our favorite recipes, let us just be respectful and wise, mastering the art of cooking. When we are in a hurry, let us turn to those recipes that do not require lots of time and are just fine using pre-made ingredients. When we crave for something outstanding let’s give all our time and care the dish requires and enjoy breathtaking flavors of our gastronomical journey.

We want a make a difference, don’t we?

“Ratatouille perfumes the kitchen with the essence of Provence and is certainly one of the great Mediterranean dishes. Equally good hot or cold it may be served as an elegant hors d’oeuvre. A really good ratatouille is not of the quicker dishes to make, as each element is cooked separately before it is arranged in the casserole to partake of a brief communal simmer. This recipe is the only one we know of which produces a ratatouille in which each vegetable retains its own shape and character.” – Julia Child

After eating this incredible meal, you will become a pinch happier, I promise!

Bon Appétit!

p.s. If you do find this recipe just as inspiring as we did, please share it with your friends.  We look forward to hearing back from you in the comments section below! Let us know what questions you may have or what inspires you to try this recipe.  Thank you for being here with us!

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French Ratatouille from Julia Child

Ratatouille perfumes the kitchen with the essence of Provence and is certainly one of the great Mediterranean dishes. Equally good hot or cold it may be served as an elegant hors d’oeuvre. A really good ratatouille is not of the quicker dishes to make, as each element is cooked separately before it is arranged in the casserole to partake of a brief communal simmer. This recipe is the only one we know of which produces a ratatouille in which each vegetable retains its own shape and character. - Julia Child

Course Appetizer, Side Dish

Keyword Lenten Orthodox recipes, Ratatouille

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

• 3 lb eggplant
• 3 lb zucchini
• 3 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp oil more if needed
• 1 1/2 lb thinly sliced yellow onions
• 6 green bell peppers sliced
• 6 cloves mashed garlic
• 3 lb firm, ripe, red tomatoes peeled, seeded and juiced, makes 4 1/2 cup pulp
• 3 tbsp minced parsley
• 1 pinch salt to taste
• 1 pinch pepper to taste
• 2 1/2 quart fireproof casserole about 2 1/2 inches deep

Instructions

• Prepare your ingredients
  
• Peel the eggplant and cut into crosswise slices an about1/4 inch thick. Scrub the zucchini and cut into the slices about the same size as eggplant. Place the vegetables in a bowl and toss with the salt. Let stand for thirty minutes. Drain. Dry each slice in a towel.
  
• One layer at a time, saute the eggplant, and then the zucchini in hot olive oil for about a minute on each side to brown very lightly. Remove to aside dish.
  
• In the same skillet, cook the onions and peppers slowly in olive oil for about 10 minutes, or until tender but not browned. Stir in the garlic and season to taste.
  
• Slice the tomato pulp into 3/8 inch strips. Lay them over the onions and peppers. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the skillet and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until tomatoes have begun to render their juice. Uncover, baste the tomatoes with the juices, raise heat and boil for several minutes until juice has almost entirely evaporated.
  
• Place a third of the tomato mixture in the bottom of the casserole and sprinkle over it 1 tbsp. of parsley. Arrange half of the eggplant and zucchini on top, then half the remaining tomatoes and parsley. Put in the rest of the eggplant and zucchini, and finish with the remaining tomatoes and parsley.
  
• Cover the casserole and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover, tip casserole and baste with the rendered juices. Correct seasoning, if necessary. Raise heat slightly and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes more, basting several times, until juices have evaporated leaving a spoonful or two of flavored olive oil. Be careful of your heat; do not let the vegetables scorch in the bottom of the casserole. Set aside uncovered. Reheat slowly at the serving time, or serve cold. Bon Appétit!
  

To peel tomatoes

• Many recipes calling for tomatoes direct that they are peeled, seeded and juiced. This applies to tomato sauces, to the tomato fondues which are used in various Basque or Provencal recipes, and to the diced tomato pulp which may be poached in a soup or a sauce. One pound or 4 or 5 medium tomatoes yield about 1 1/2 cups of pulp.
  
• Use firm, ripe, red tomatoes. Drop the tomatoes one or two at a time in boiling water to cover, and boil for exactly 10 seconds. Remove. Cut out the stem. Peel off the skin starting from the stem hole.
  

To seed and juice tomatoes

• Cut peeled or unpeeled tomatoes in half crosswise, not through the stem. Squeeze each half gently to extract the seeds and juices from the center of the tomato. If they are to receive a cold stuffing, sprinkle the interior with salt which will draw more juices out then invert them in a colander.
  
• Chop, dice, or slice the peeled, seeded, and juiced tomato halves. Roughly chopped tomato pulp is tomatoes concussee.