Ratatouille

This dish is my specialty.  Here’s a little background story on my cooking abilities.  The first time I lived on my own was in France in 2005.  The first time I tried making a meal for myself, I had chicken thighs that weren’t thawed completely.  I ended up overcooking it out of paranoia to the point of jerky.  Then I poured too much salt in it.  It was horrible but I forced myself to eat it.  I was depressed that I wasn’t an amazing cook like my mom.

Flash forward to 2008 when I returned to France to live in Paris for a year.  I had bought a frozen bag of ratatouille with all of the vegetables and frozen sauce cubes.  I loved it and decided to challenge myself.  Just by looking and tasting, I set out to make the dish without looking at a recipe or ingredients.  I was able to do it to great success.  That was when I knew I’d finally arrived at my mother’s intuitive cooking level.  I’ve tweaked it a bit through the years but it’s still my signature dish.

I find it easiest to prepare in a Crockpot.  First, I turn it on high heat and pour in a little olive oil.  I chop up about three large garlic cloves and a medium onion and throw those in first.  Next, I chop up two zucchinis, one or two yellow squash, one eggplant, five tomatoes, and half each of a red, orange and yellow bell pepper.  I also add a couple of cans of tomato sauce to help the juices along.  If I have to leave it unattended, I add water so that it can cook down without burning.  For spices, I add Herbes de Provence, pepper, salt, dried basil, and a little granulated garlic to help pump up that flavor.  I usually let it cook for about three or four hours until the vegetables soften and soak up each other’s flavors.

When I first made ratatouille, I instinctively served it over couscous thinking it would be a good match.  It turns out that this is a very popular way to serve ratatouille.  I recently made this dish for my brother and I served it on Near East roasted pine nut couscous.  The mixes are very quick and easy.  I would recommend using the garlic seasoning of this brand of couscous with ratatouille though.  I knew Tyler would also need some protein so I ended up cooking a couple of chicken breasts in chipotle and lemon olive oil with salt, pepper and garlic.  I think the ratatouille tends to go better with beef but chicken is what I had.  It was actually a good match as well.

Tyler raided my parents’ wine collection and brought a Mark West pinot noir to have with dinner.  It seemed to pair well with the ratatouille.  One of my favorite things about ratatouille is that it’s very delicious and very healthy.  You can eat as much as you want!