Ratatouille Time!

It's winter, which means that solar radiation and the energy and heat it brings are at a minimum, and coldness is at a maximum. Not to whine too much, as this winter has been a mild one (thanks, climate change!), but still...How to remedy the winter blues, you ask? Well, you could drink a lot (ill advised),  take bubble baths (a personal favorite) or eat warm food. Along the lines of the last option, I decided to make some ratatouille. Ratatouille is actually more of a summer dish, as that's when all of the veggies and fruits (looking at you, tomato) in the dish are at peak freshness. But it's warm and it's not choc-full of cheese and cream*, so I decided to make it.

We all know and love the classic Disney film, Ratatouille, which is certainly reason enough for any Remy the mouse fan to try their own hand at making some, but for me, ratatouille has a bit of a sentimental bent as well. After two less–than–ideal homestay experiences during my first sojourn in Paris, on the third attempt I was finally placed with a nice woman who, grace à dieu, respected my dietary restrictions and tried to make me veggie-friendly stuff during the program-mandated weekday dinners we had together. It was during those dinners that I ate large quantities of homemade ratatouille, which was delicious and tasted like love and care.

Anyway, so I made some. It requires a lot of chopping, but is certainly well worth the effort. If you have access to your parents' mandoline (or are a real adult and have your own cooking supplies), this would be an ideal recipe to break it out, and the results will be more uniform and "fancy". As I am oven-less, I looked for a recipe that was stovetop-friendly. The recipe can be found here, and is highly recommended by the interwebz. It is in french, but I can certainly translate if asked (also, I think Chrome can do it for you).

The recipe calls for fresh thyme and laurel, which is sold together in handy little bundles in many stores here in France, but can also be found in any decent U.S. grocery store worth its sel. Other than that, the ingredients are pretty standard: zucchini, eggplant, onion, garlic, tomato, red and green peppers, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

With a teensy sprig of thyme on top!

And there you have it. Mine turned out a little soupy at first, so I cooked off some of the excess water, but you don't want the ingredients to be too mushy, so be careful not to over-cook. It's a great dish and adds some color to a dreary January day. Le Figaro recommends a Costières-de-Nîmes as a wine pairing. Bon appétit!



*A side note on the "cheese and cream" comment: cheese and cream are delicious. I've just decided to cut back for health reasons, which has been one of the more difficult decisions of my life lol.