Epicure Ratatouille Niçoise, 375 g, Pack of 12

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When choosing tomatoes, I say anything goes. If it’s growing in your garden, toss it in there; you’ll have a nicer flavor overall. When I use smaller tomatoes, like cherry or pear, I rarely slice them, preferring to let them pop on their own as they cook. We’ll be making a bouquet garni for our ratatouille. Fresh is best! Plus bouquet garni are so pretty.

Fresh tomatoes - Although tinned tomatoes make up most of the tomatoes in this dish, we like to add some fresh for some extra flavour and texture. Make ahead and leftovers: You can make Ratatouille ahead and refrigerate in a sealed container (preferably not plastic due to the tomato’s acidity). It will keep well for 4 days or so. Take it out 30 minutes or so before you are ready to serve. Warm it through over gentle heat or just bring it to room temperature. The most famous of all Provencal vegetable dishes though would have to be Ratatouille. Originally a food of the poor, it is a braise made from a medley of summer vegetables: eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, herbs and whatever else is at hand. Sauté zucchini – Repeat for the zucchini, about 3 minutes of sautéing. As with the capsicum, you won’t get much colour on them in the time it takesto cook the exterior but that’s fine; Here’s the thing about ratatouille; it’s ridiculously versatile. Served piping hot, it becomes a warm comfort food equally good as the main course or a side dish. Eaten cold, straight from the fridge, the flavors are brighter and more pronounced. There are so many ways to enjoy ratatouille. Here are a few of my favorites.

From the book: The Green Roasting Tin

For the best flavor, rest in the warm pot for 1 hour before serving. This will allow the flavors to settle and deepen beautifully. You do not need to heat before serving, ratatouille is great just warm.

We then set the eggplant aside to give the zucchini, bell pepper, onion, and garlic a chance to cook without being overcrowded in the pan. The salt also tenderises the flesh of the eggplant and makes the eggplant absorb less oil when cooking. Common wisdom also claims that salt removes the bitter taste in eggplants. However the reality is modern eggplants have had any bitterness bred out of them so it’s not a necessary step today. Olive oil - the oil of choice for sautéing the vegetables with the added benefit of adding rich fruity olive flavor to the stew. I began freezing ratatouille but then I had to go through the fuss of thawing it out before eating it. I also found that freezing it made it mushy. And then it hit me, why not can it? Ratatouille turns basic vegetables into magic. Even if you don’t typically love eggplant or summer squash, I bet you’ll enjoy this ratatouille.

More Side Dish

Onions and garlic - these aromatic vegetables are essential flavor-building ingredients of ratatouille. I based my recipe on Alice Water’s recipe in her book The Art of Simple Food. Over the years, I’ve tweaked it to make it my own. Here in the south of France traditionnally each veg is cooked separately, this is time consuming so I go for the middle road.... cast iron pot on one side and a frying pan on the other. My veg (apart from onions fried directly in the pot) are fried a couple of minutes with olive oil in the pan then added to the pot and mixed. Because ratatouille contains non-acidic vegetables, it has to be pressure canned. I’ve seen recipes out there that claim you can use the water bath method for ratatouille. It’s downright dangerous; there isn’t enough acid in ratatouille to make water bath canning safe.

After that, remove the bouquet garni, using your wooden spoon to press out the juices against the side of the pot. Salt the mixture to taste and add more oil if it needs it. Now turn off the heat and cover the pot for ten minutes to let everything mix and mingle. In the same pot, add another two tablespoons of olive oil and your onions. Cook the onions until they’re translucent and just beginning to brown at the edges. The ratatouille itself is naturally gluten-free and you can use your favourite gluten-free pasta to make this dish. The single most important thing that differentiates meh Ratatouille from holy-cow-this-amazing Ratatouille? Pan-searing each vegetable separately before bringing them together in a pot to braise. Most recipes will have you (attempt to) sauté everything in one pot at the same time but you will achieve a far better outcome by cooking them separately. This way offers much better control over how much each vegetable gets cooked so you don’t end up with a pot of overcooked mush (the #1 Ratatouille offence, right there!). You also get some browning on the vegetables, and as we know, colour = flavour!! What is ratatouille?

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Salt is your friend. Please taste your ratatouille and salt liberally. It’s the difference between uh-may-zing and a jar full of bland vegetables. Add oil to a large heavy lidded pot or dutch oven and set the pot on the stove over high heat. When the oil is hot, add the eggplant and zucchini. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables soften and start to brown, about five minutes. A fluffy egg white omelette stuffing– Ratatouille instead of the asparagus stuffing in the recipe. (PS. Egg white omelettes don’t get cooked around here purposefully. They’re just a great way to use up leftover egg whites after making things with the yolks. I’m no cholesterol-watching obsessive!); Like my Roasted Vegetable Salad, this easy Ratatouille recipe uses classic Mediterranean produce. Thankfully, the same ingredients are easy to find in just about any grocery store. The vegetable stew is best in the warmer months when eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini are at their most vibrant. Consider doubling and freezing if you have a large enough pot.