Ratatouille

A classic French vegetable stew that is fast friendly.

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Course Dinner, Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine French

Ingredients

2 pounds Eggplant*
Kosher salt
1+ tbsp Peanut Oil***
6+ tbps Peanut Oil***
4 Medium zucchini cubed
1 Red/Orange Bell Pepper cubed
1 Yellow Bell Pepper cubed
1 Green Bell Pepper cubed
5 Garlic cloves, minced
2 Yellow sweet onions diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 Roma Tomatoes diced
28 ounces Marzano peeled tomatoes
2 tsp Honey (and to taste)
4 tbsp chopped parsley****
2 tsp Thyme, fresh and finely chopped
3 tbsp Fresh basil finely chopped
2 Bay leaves
½ tsp Crushed red pepper flakes*****
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp Mushroom powder (Shataki works well)******

Instructions

Slice the eggplant into long strips about ½ inch in thickness. Place the strips on a cookie sheet and sprinkle them with the kosher salt. Let them sit for about 30 minutes to degorge.
Drain the eggplant stripes and rinse well. Then dry with a clean kitchen towel.
Place the peanut oil into a fry pan on medium heat. Fry the eggplant stripes until browned on both sides. This may take more than 1 tbsp of peanut oil.
Once all the stripes are friend nicely brown, set aside to cool enough to handle.
Cube the eggplant stripes ½ inch cubes and place in a small bowl.
Mise en place and cube, chop or mince, the zucchini, Bell Peppers, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and the leafy herbs.
Mise en place the tomato paste and honey into seperate containers.
Place the peeled tomatoes in a bowl and squish the tomatoes into much smaller pieces. Be careful, these can squirt tomato juice everywhere.
When all the ingredients are ready, place 2 tbsp of the peanut oil into a large fry pan. Once simering, add the zucchini and bell pepper. Cook until they just begin to brown.
At the same time, in a large Dutch oven, add 2 tbsp of Peanut Oil and fry the onions until just beginning to brown. Then add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
Spread the onions and garlic to the sides of the Dutch oven and add the tomato paste and fry for ~ 1 minute.
Pour the peeled squished tomatoes into the Dutch over and mix well. Add the cubed eggplant and mix well.
Add the zucchini, Bell Peppers, onions, garlic to the Dutch Oven and mix well.
Add the honey, parsley, thyme, basil, red pepper flakes, bay leaves and mushroom powder to the Dutch Oven. Mix well and simmer.
TASTE. As this cooks, the taste will deepen. So be careful how you salt and pepper the dish. I would give it a good 30 minutes on a simmer, stirring frequently to keep it from burning, until you add salt and pepper. Then add to your taste.
Frankly, it works great to cook this dish a day or two before serving, as the flavors meld over time and become much deeper. You can, however serve now and it will be delicious. Serve with crusty bread or rice, or as a side for a fish or meat.
The dish can be froozen and vacume packed and will keep for months in the freezer.

Notes

*You can use the Chinese Eggplant, which I think has a better flavor, or the regular Globe eggplants found in grocery stores. Some recipes call for removing the eggplant skin. With the Chinese eggplants the skin is not as tough as with the Globe. So, I remove the globe skins, however, this is totally up to you. If you can find the Sicilian eggplants these have small seeds and thinner skins than the globe. These are not easy to find but can substitute if you can’t find the Chinese and don’t want to use the globe.
**This can be done on a grill pan, or on the grill.
***For the Orthodox Christian Lenten fast, olive oil is not considered “fast friendly”. But peanut oil or other similar oil, can be used instead. If you are not making this for a fast, please use EVOO, which will add great additional flavor.
****You can use a bouquet garni instead of the herbs as indicated her. Just put thyme sprigs, basil leaves, parsley sprigs, black pepper corns, and the bay leaves in a small muslin bag. But I find it easier to just put the herbs directly into the stew and add pepper as needed. Also you can use herb de provence in place of the fresh herbs.
*****Ground mushroom powder is a great way to add umami to a dish. It is clearly fast friendly. Add 1 tablespoon to this dish and it will kick up the taste, but this is optional to your individual taste.
******Red pepper flakes are spicy and I love them. However, many can not take too much spice. This amount in this dish is enough to give a very light background red pepper flake taste. Almost imperceptible, but it really adds to the taste in my opinion. But you can omit if you wish.

Keyword Ratatouille, vegetable stew

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