Ratatouille

Name: Ratatouille
Ingredients: 1 medium onion; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 medium eggplant (1 pound or a little more); 1 small zucchini; 1/2 large red bell pepper; Salt; 2 or 3 medium tomatoes; A scattering of chopped fresh parsley

December 9, 2011

Recently this hard-to-pronounce French dish became a household word in America overnight, when the delightful movie Ratatouille swept the country and won our hearts. Not many Americans would begin to know how to make a ratatouille, but that such a dish had the power to evoke an overwhelming taste memory was something we could relate to. I fell in love with ratatouille when I was a jeune fille living in Paris, and I have been partial to it ever since. There is a classic way to make it—cooking each of the ingredients separately, then putting them all together—but that is time-consuming, and I’m not really sure that it produces such a superior dish. I feel that rules are made to be bent in cooking, and that there’s no harm in simplifying and putting your own imprint on a dish. So here is my version, subject to variations according to the season. I always make triple the amount I’m going to eat immediately, because I put it to so many good uses.

Recipe notes

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Pasta Alla Mezcal

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