Pri's Pantry

Ratatouille

Oh!I haven't come here in such a long time. And I should make time and to do this more often. That's what my husband said. After having a rare 3 days off in a row at work and it's raining for 3 days. I had enough time to caught up with lots of things. Went to have breakfast with best friend at Sofra, organize pantry and kitchen's cabinets, did some terrarium and other little craft projects and even the endless laundry is all done. So, I took my husband's advise and here I am in a Tuesday late morning.Husband off to work and daughter dropped off at school,I am back into blogging.
And after all this rain.. .I thought about hummm Ratatouille might be a great way to restart.

Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise.
It's a pretty simple dish you can serve as a side dish or as meal own it's own! it goes really well with couscous or rice and for protein I would pick from lamb, duck to roast chicken. You can even do a take on the contemporary variation, confit byaldi,popularized by Thomas Keller in his "French Laundry" book and even more popular after the 2007 animated film Ratatouille.
But a secret to a truly traditional Ratatouille, you need to cook the vegetable separately.

"The secret of a good ratatouille is to cook the vegetables separately so each will taste truly of itself."

—Joël Robuchon, The Complete Robuchon

Ingredients:

• 2 small sized zucchinis 
• 2 small eggplants 
• 2 small sized summer squash
• 1 Medium onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 3 Tbsp chopped fresh herbs(I used parsley,oregano, thyme,tarragon, if use dry herbs cut amount by 1/2)
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 bay leaf
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper 

How to make it:

 Dice all the vegetable medium dice size.

In a thick bottom pot like Le Creuset style medium heat add olive oil and onions and sweat them until they are translucent then add the garlic and cook for 5 more minutes. Turn heat all the way down.

In a different pan sautee the tomatoes in a little oil plus salt and pepper to taste for 5-7 minute or until they are soft then add the tomato to the pot with onions and garlic.

Do this same steps with the red pepper, zucchini, squash and the eggplant adding them all to the pot once they are tender.

Add chopped herbs to the veggies and the balsamic vinegar. Put the lid on and let it cook in slow heat for 45 min to an hour. Make sure to stir and check at times to not let the ratatouille stick to the bottom and burn. You cn make this ahead of time and even a day before serving just need to bring up  the temperature slowing before serving.

Enjoy,

Pri =)

Willy Nelson, my dog, loves tomatoes and he can smell them on the stove cooking