![]() ![]() It is also wonderfully versatile at the table, making a fine starter, side dish or main course, one that can be eaten warm, at room temperature or cold.Ī slowly cooked stew of eggplant, onions, peppers, summer squash and tomatoes has been simmering on hearths around the Mediterranean since the 16th century, when tomatoes, peppers and squash from the Americas met the eggplant, onion and olive oil already in residence. It is best made in advance, and you can be flexible with the way you cook it, roasting the vegetables in stages as time allows, then combining them all even days later. That time spent steeping in good oil makes ratatouille one of the rare vegetable dishes that improves as it sits. Then they’re mixed together in one pan, covered with more oil and some tomato, and cooked again until everything condenses in flavor and practically falls apart, soaking up the good oil and tomato almost like a confit. All the vegetables are bathed in olive oil and roasted separately on baking pans until well browned. This is what many contemporary French cooks do, and it’s the method on which our recipe is based. Even “Larousse Gastronomique” discards that method in its official recipe, throwing everything into the same pan in stages without the benefit of that individual browning.īut there is another, better way around the tedium: using your oven. However, all that standing at the stove stirring vegetables can become tedious. Most cooks agree that this is the best way to ensure that the vegetables are cooked to perfection before all are combined, and the flavors left to meld. The most traditional recipes call for cooking each vegetable separately in a pot on the stove until well browned, layering everything back into the pot with a generous amount of olive oil and some tomatoes, and then letting it all slowly stew. There are as many versions as there are cooks, each slightly different in method and ingredients. ![]() Unlike much of French cuisine, ratatouille does not have a set recipe or precise technique. By mastering it, you will gain not only deeper insights into how to cook the vegetables in the recipe, but you will also be able to apply that knowledge to other vegetables, making you a better cook all around. Ratatouille is beloved for its silky, olive oil-imbued vegetables, which are saturated with the summery scents of garlic and herbs. Although cooking bibles like “The Escoffier Cookbook” and “Larousse Gastronomique” may not have as many recipes centering on artichokes and carrots as they do on chicken or beef, it is only because vegetables suffuse the canon and the kitchen, from the broths and sauces that serve as the base of elaborate dishes, to the garnishes that finish them.īut there are a handful of dishes where vegetables are the stars. Vegetables are the bedrock of French cuisine, the foundation upon which all is built. ![]()
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