Ratatouille is a precious commodity around here, as I've mentioned before. We all love it. Cliff's St. Louis sister likes it so well that she bought all the ingredients needed to make it, looked at the recipe I posted on my blog, and started cooking.
Unfortunately, it was a miserable failure. Hers was dry, she told me. The more she tried to fix it, the worse it tasted. We went over the recipe on the phone, and she had used the proper amounts of everything.
So this past weekend she brought the ingredients for another batch (my garden was being a little stingy, what with the recent rain) and asked me to make it while she watched; perhaps, she thought, she could figure out what went wrong.
I started cutting and chopping and got everything in the pot. "That's all exactly like I did it," she said, perplexed.
Then I put the lid on and turned it down to simmer.
"Oh, I didn't put a lid on," she said. "Do you suppose that's the problem?"
She kept peeking through the glass lid, remarking on how much liquid there was. She seemed amazed, really. Mine usually has so much liquid that I take the lid off toward the end and let it simmer until it thickens a little.
So we solved the mystery, and hopefully she has a life filled with the joys of ratatouille.
I brought in more free food from the garden this morning, and it looks like once again I'm making ratatouille. It's low-fat, low-calorie, and nutritious. Most importantly, Cliff and I never get tired of it. I only have a couple of tomatoes ripe, so this time I'll be using home-canned tomatoes. We'll see if that makes any difference.
I first heard the word "ratatouille" while watching Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, on PBS; he taught me how to pronounce the word. He used about 40 steps and at least three pans making the stuff. I had to cube the eggplant, mix it up with a bunch of salt, then put it in a colander in the sink to let it drain for, I don't know, an hour maybe. I bought his book, and this was the only recipe I recall making from it. But I made it over and over, then washed all those pans and the colander.
Somewhere along the line I got rid of Jeff's book and lost the recipe.
Several years went by with no ratatouille in our house; when I finally decided to make it again, lacking my original recipe, I checked my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and found a much simpler recipe. It only uses one pan, and there's no colander or waiting for the eggplant to drain; it tastes every bit as good as the other stuff that was so much trouble to make.
I always double this recipe when I make ratatouille because Cliff and I are crazy about it.
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups cubed, peeled eggplant
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped, peeled tomato (2 medium) or one 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes, drained
3/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper
3 tablespoons dry white wine, chicken broth, or vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil or oregano
1. In a large skillet cook onion and garlic over medium heat till tender. Stir in all other ingredients. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Uncover and cook about 5 minutes more or until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally. Season to taste.
My cooking times are usually longer than given on this recipe, and I'm pretty generous with onion and garlic in most dishes I cook. I leave the veggies in fairly large chunks.
Cliff and I even like it cold.
This is everything in the pan before cooking...
and here it is, almost done. How could anyone not love such a dish? Oh, and except for the salt and pepper, it all came out of my garden this morning, including the basil.
