Ratatouille, Ratatouille

It's not often that I can say my cooking is influenced by a cartoon... but I finally got round to watching Pixar's Ratatouille recently and it inspired me to cook something completely out of season.  Sad really, but there we are. 

Ratatouille is a summer dish - full of ripe sunshine flavours of tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, garlic, onions and peppers.  However, I made a pretty passable one based on the dish cooked in the film.

Traditionally, ratatouille is a dish of vegetables stewed in olive oil - though these days it has become a dish cooked in tomatoes rather than the oil.  And it's often best if the vegetables are cooked separately, so as to ensure each is cooked to its own strengths.  With this version, I've removed the aubergines and served them quite separately.  One of my few dislikes is big lumps of undercooked aubergine, whereas one of my loves is the creamy gloop you get from roasted, smokey aubergine blended with olive oil.  So here, I've served it separately.  The courgette and sliced tomato go on top of a rich tomato sauce cooked down with onion, peppers and plenty of garlic. 
Fresh basil isn't really to be had at the moment in my neck of the woods, so I went instead for dried herbs de Provence - a mix of thyme, rosemary, marjoram and just a touch of lavendar for fragrance.

And another discovery: left-over ratatouille makes a delicious soup - so here are two recipes for ratatouille.

Lamb with ratatouille
(serves 2 with enough left-over for soup)

For the lamb:
1 lamb fillet
1 tbsp olive oil
Black pepper
1 sprig rosemary

For the ratatouille:
Olive oil
1 onion, very finely chopped
1 small red pepper, very finely chopped
Herbs de Provence (or a mix of dried oregano and thyme will do)
2 cloves garlic, crushed or very finely chopped
Salt & pepper
1 tin of tomatoes whizzed in a blender until smooth
2 medium courgettes, finely sliced and sprinkled with salt for half an hour
2 medium-large tomatoes

1 large aubergine, sliced and sprinked with salt for half an hour.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Pound the rosemary and a good twist of pepper together with the olive oil and rub all over the lamb.  Leave covered in the fridge for a few hours at least, or overnight. 

Begin by softening the onion and red pepper together with a good pinch of the dried herbs and seasoning in plenty of olive oil.  This is the sort of gentle cooking that should take 15-20 minutes.  Ensure it doesn't brown or burn.  Add the garlic for the last five minutes.
Add the whizzed tomatoes and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.  Pour the tomato mix into a gratin dish and artfully arrange the rinsed, sliced courgette and the sliced tomato on top.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle over more dried herbs.  Cover loosely with greaseproof paper and bake for half an hour.  Remove the paper, drizzle with more oil and give it another five minutes.

Meanwhile, grease a baking tray with olive oil, lay the rinsed aubergine slices on it and drizzle with more olive oil. Place in the oven until cooked through and all soft and pulpy.  Remove and whizz together with enough olive oil to give a good spoonable consistency.

The lamb now just needs to be seasoned and simply cooked in a very hot grill pan until charred slightly on all sides and placed in the hot oven for five minutes (to cook it pink).  Remove, allow to rest and slice into six or eight pieces.

Plate-up:   carefully remove the layer of sliced vegetables from the ratatouille and set aside.  Spook a good glup of aubergine into the middle of the plate and arrange the slices of lamb on top.  Now spoon some of the tomato sauce over the lamb and top carefully with the sliced vegetables.  Arrange a little more tomato and vegetable ratatouille on the plate and give the whole thing a temperate drizzle with very good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Ratatouille Soup
Left-over ratatouille
Chicken or vegetable stock

Blend half of the left over ratatouille and roughly chop the other half.  Mix with the stock and heat - it's as simple as that!

tags: courgette  lamb  

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