Ratatouille

Each vegetable fried separately and combined at the end, so the pieces stay distinct instead of collapsing into a paste.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines, in 2 cm cubes
• 3 courgettes, in 2 cm half-moons
• 2 red peppers, in squares
• 2 onions, sliced
• 800 g ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 150 ml olive oil
• a few thyme sprigs
• 2 bay leaves
• a handful of basil
• salt and pepper

Method

1. EACH VEGETABLE IS FRIED SEPARATELY AND THEY MEET AT THE END. Five pans' worth in sequence, or five goes in one pan. Everything in together gives a uniform soft mass, because aubergine wants twelve minutes and courgette four, and the water that comes out of the courgette stews the aubergine rather than letting it brown. Separate, each keeps its shape and its own character, and that is the entire dish.
2. AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT UNLIKE THE NORTH AFRICAN VEGETABLE SALADS ON THIS SITE. Zaalouk and taktouka are crushed to a paste on purpose, cooked until the oil separates. This is the opposite instruction and both are right for their own dish.
3. THE AUBERGINE GOES IN A HOT DRY-ISH PAN AND IS NOT CROWDED. It drinks oil astonishingly fast; adding more when it looks dry gives a greasy result. Use the oil specified, keep the heat high, and let it brown before moving it.
4. Aubergine salted in a colander 30 minutes and patted dry, if it is a large seedy one.
5. Four tablespoons of oil in a wide pan over a high heat. Aubergine in a single layer, left 3 minutes without stirring, then turned until browned all over, 10 to 12 minutes. Out into a bowl.
6. More oil, courgettes, 4 to 5 minutes until coloured at the edges and still firm. Out.
7. Peppers, 6 minutes until softened and blistered. Out.
8. Onions over a medium heat with a little more oil, 10 minutes until soft. Garlic for the last minute.
9. Tomatoes, thyme and bay in with the onions. Simmered UNCOVERED 20 minutes until thick and no longer watery.
10. ALL the vegetables returned, folded through gently, and cooked together 10 minutes only -- just long enough for them to know each other.
11. Seasoned, the bay and thyme stalks removed.
12. Basil torn over off the heat. Left 30 minutes before eating; it is better warm than hot and better still the next day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes