A Peasant’s Dish – Ratatouille

My daughter has a small staple of favorite movies to watch: 101 Dalmatians, Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Sleeping Beauty, and Ratatouille. If you enjoy food watch Ratatouille, it’s a great movie with a great story (about a rat that has visions of a dead chef that drives him to cook), absolutely amazing animation, and a true to life cast of characters in the kitchen.

The food critic Anton Ego has written off the restaurant, but there is a new buzz about it so he gives it another shot. Remy, the rat, decides to serve him ratatouille. Everyone is shocked since it is a “peasant’s dish” and not something that you would likely find in a 3 or 4 star restaurant. The beauty and genius of the scene is that it is a dish that can trigger buried emotions of long gone. At the first bite Mr. Ego becomes slack-jawed, drops his pen, and is transported back to his roots as a young boy in his mom’s kitchen eating ratatouille.

After watching the movie several dozens of times my daughter asked if I could make her ratatouille. I have made it countless times before at home and in restaurants. Ratatouille is a simple, wholesome dish that can be made with basic skills and no fancy ingredients. I never made it the way “Remy did” but decided to. Thomas Keller, my favorite Chef, consulted on the movie in many ways; from the kitchen layout to the food. His take on the classic dish, set to animation, was visually stunning as is all of his food.

I “winged” making the dish based on my experiences in making ratatouille, but was going for the visual appearance of the movie version. Since making the dish I found Chef Keller’s recipe and was pretty close. If I had found his recipe before my adventure I would have stuck with his version out of respect (http://www1.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/105-02202008-1490804.html). In the movie the dish is made in a shallow oval shaped copper pan. Luckily I have an identical pan.

If you have access to a Japanese mandolin use it, otherwise cut the vegetables into very thin rounds, about 1/16” thick.

Ingredients:

• 1 zucchini sliced into rounds


• 1 thin yellow squash, sliced into rounds


• 4 ripe plum tomatoes, sliced into rounds


• 3 shallots, sliced paper thin


• 1 Japanese eggplant, sliced into rounds


• A little fresh thyme, chopped


• Course sea salt (Maldon brand if you can find it: http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/)


• Fresh ground black pepper


• Extra virgin olive oil


• ½ cup tomato sauce, simmered with 4 cloves of garlic, roasted and pureed
  

Using separate bowls for each, toss the zucchini, squash, tomatoes, shallots, and eggplant with fresh thyme, a little extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and pepper.

Apply a thin layer of the roasted garlic tomato sauce on the bottom of a shallow baking dish or casserole.

Alternately “shingle” the vegetables (slice of zucchini, slice of eggplant, slice of shallot, slice of squash, slice of tomato) starting in the center of the dish and working in a spiral until the dish is filled. Keep the layers tight with only about 1/8” to 1/4” gap between the tops of each slice.

Top the vegetables with a few thin pats of butter, cover with parchment paper, then srap the whole dish with foil. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 and ½ hours. Use a pallet knife, of narrow rounded frosting spatula to serve a stack of ratatouille.