What is ratatouille? What recipes for this dish exist? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article. Many are partial to the dishes of French cuisine. However, some of them do not know how to cook at home, others do not know where to buy all the necessary components. And others are simply afraid that the result of their home will not like it.
Ratatouille is a French dish that is prepared very simply, has no pronounced exotic taste and consists of affordable products. In fact, this is an ordinary vegetable stew, only made according to a special recipe. Let's look at some ways to create a ratatouille below.
A bit of history
It is known that ratatouille from the 18th century was the usual food of the poor peasants of France, who could not afford meat. That is why the name of the dish translates as “bad food”, although in reality the ratatouille is very tasty and satisfying.
The Spaniards call the identical dish pisto, Italians - caponata, Hungarians - lecho, and for us ratatouille - vegetable stew. Nevertheless, this appetizer has some features of the creation, thanks to which it is considered an aristocratic dish worthy to decorate the menu of any restaurant in Europe.
The recipe for a real peasant ratatouille is quite simple - all the vegetables are stewed together, and there should be so many that enough for the next day. Today, there are many recipes for creating a ratatouille. However, the original recipe did not involve a large number of complex chef tricks. After all, the peasants had no time to deal with chopping and frying vegetables. And even more so with the creation of sauce. And not everyone had ovens in the villages.
Modern chefs in the process of creating this dish show miracles of quick wits and each time they get a new meal.
Manufacturing Features
Few know the ratatouille recipe. If you want this dish to turn out delicious and look appetizing, not turn into a simple vegetable stew, when creating it you need to take into account such moments:
- Use only fresh vegetables to create a ratatouille: canned and frozen ones are not suitable for this. Initially, only onions, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes were included in the recipe. Later they began to add garlic, and then eggplant. A ratatouille made from the listed components is considered a classic. However, today there are other variations of the recipe, when it includes minced meat, other vegetables, cheese, rice, meat and so on.
- Choose tomatoes that are not overripe, hard, as soft smooth cut it will be difficult.
- The classic method involves creating a ratatouille by baking vegetables. However, today this dish is often cooked in a pan. Vegetables in this case are stewed.
- Ratatouille is easy to cook. But the ideal food is where all the vegetables are peeled. And this is a rather painstaking process.
- To make the dish beautiful, cut all the vegetables for it into identical pieces in shape and size. Many cut them in circles and, alternating, put them in shape. You can spread the lap or putting circles on the edge - in the form in the latter case, more vegetables are placed. You can cut vegetables into cubes. They must be large so that the food does not transform into a shapeless mass.
- Choose young eggplants and zucchini, without large seeds.
- Use the complex supplement "Herbs of Provence", which will give the dish a French flavor. If you don’t have it, use dried spices: rosemary, thyme, mint, basil, fennel and caraway seeds mixed in any proportion.
- Try not to cook ratatouille in advance, as vegetables can become pale due to the acid found in tomatoes. As a result, the dish will lose its unusual taste and attractive appearance.
Classic dish
Consider the classic ratatouille recipe. So, we take:
- 100 g of onions;
- 200 g sweet pepper;
- 0.6 kg of tomatoes;
- 5 cloves of garlic;
- 250 g of zucchini;
- Provencal herbs (to taste);
- olive oil (how much will go);
- 250 g eggplant (optional);
- pepper, salt.
How to cook?
This classic ratatouille recipe involves the following steps:
- Pour boiling water over the tomatoes. After two minutes, remove them from the water and peel them.
- Cut a third of the tomatoes into small cubes.
- Wash the pepper, remove the seeds, cut into small squares.
- Peel the onion and chop finely.
- In a heated frying pan with olive oil, send peppers, tomatoes and onions. First fry for 5 minutes on a gentle fire, then reduce the heat and 15 minutes, darken the vegetable mixture under the lid. As a result, you should not get too thick sauce. Salt it and pepper to your liking.
- Pour the sauce into the form in which you will bake the vegetables. It is desirable that it be round and have a diameter of up to 28 cm.
- Remove peel from the eggplant and zucchini with a peeler.
- Sprinkle the eggplant with salt and set aside for 20 minutes. Rinse off the salt, dry the vegetable with a cloth.
- Cut the eggplant and zucchini into 0.8 cm thick mugs. Cut the remaining tomatoes as well.
- Put the vegetables, alternating, in a form with sauce: zucchini, tomato, eggplant, then zucchini again, and so on, until the vegetables run out.
- Pour the garlic through the press, add herbs to it, add two tablespoons of olive oil, stir. Pour the vegetables with this mixture.
- Bake vegetables for one hour in the oven at 180 ° C until completely softened.
You can serve the dish to the table in the form and only then lay it on the plates. And you can cook ratatouille immediately in several small forms and serve it portionwise. In this case, the containers should not be too hot.
Ratatouille from the cartoon of the same name
Let's study another interesting recipe for ratatouille. Take:
- 700 g of tomatoes;
- 70 ml olive oil;
- 140 g of zucchini;
- 100 g of onions;
- 140 g zucchini;
- three cloves of garlic;
- eggplant - 140 g;
- 300 g of Bulgarian pepper (different colors);
- one bay leaf;
- 20 ml balsamic vinegar;
- 20 g of herbs provence;
- a sprig of fresh parsley;
- salt (to taste);
- a pinch of ground thyme;
- ground pepper black;
- a sprig of fresh thyme.
This recipe ratatouille stipulates the implementation of such actions:
- Wash the sweet pepper, cut along, remove the seeds. Cover the baking sheet with foil, spread it with oil. Halve the peppers with the slices down. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven at 240 ° C.
- Next, peel the onion, cut into small pieces.
- Crush two cloves of garlic with a knife.
- Scale the tomatoes with boiling water, peel them off. Dice 300 g of tomatoes into small cubes.
- Preheat a frying pan with 2 tbsp. l vegetable oil. Add garlic and onion. Fry over moderate heat until their color changes.
- Tomatoes add and reduce heat. Put sprigs of parsley and thyme, bay leaf on top, add ground thyme. Stew the tomatoes in a covered pan for 15 minutes.
- Remove the baked peppers from the oven, cool and peel. Cut into small pieces and pour in the sauce. Put out another five minutes. Extract parsley, thyme and bay leaf.
- Beat the vegetable mass with a blender. Set aside a tablespoon of sauce, send the rest to a baking dish.
- Peel the zucchini, zucchini and eggplant. Cut into circles 0.5 cm thick. Do the same with tomatoes. Put the vegetables, alternating, in the form.
- Crush a clove of garlic with a knife, combine with salt, herbs, pepper, delayed sauce and remaining oil. Pour balsamic vinegar, stir.
- Pour the vegetables with sauce, cover with a foil pan and send to the oven.
- Bake the ratatouille for an hour and a half at 160 ° C, then remove the foil and bake for another half hour. If the top starts to burn, return the foil to its place.
This dish is attributed to haute cuisine by professionals.
In the pan
So, you already know how to make ratatouille. The recipe will consider the following. You will need:
- 400 g squash;
- tomatoes - 300 g;
- 50 g of parsley fresh;
- 200 g of onion;
- 200 g eggplant;
- leeks - one stalk;
- hot pepper pod;
- 400 g sweet red pepper;
- seasonings, salt (to taste);
- vegetable oil (as needed).
This homemade ratatouille recipe is great. Follow these steps:
- Wash the vegetables and pat dry.
- Cut the leek into slices, the remaining vegetables into cubes about 1.5 cm high. First, scald the tomatoes with boiling water and remove the skin from them.
- Fry the onion (both types) in hot oil for 7 minutes, then send the remaining vegetables to a skillet. Simmer them for 20 minutes under the lid.
- Remove seeds from hot pepper, grind it in a blender. Crush parsley with a knife. Combine parsley, salt, pepper, seasonings, stir and send to vegetables.
- Stew foods for another 10 minutes.
With pasta
Recipes ratatouille, made at home, continue to consider further. So, wash and dice one eggplant, one onion, a couple of squash and red hot pepper. Grind half a kilo of tomatoes in a blender with fresh basil.
Put eggplant and onions in the form, add a couple of tbsp. l olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake vegetables at 200 ° C for 15 minutes. Next, add to them squash, pepper and another spoonful of oil. Pepper again, salt and put in the oven for another half hour.
Meanwhile, boil pasta (450 g), boil tomato puree with a crumbled clove of garlic, boil over low heat for 4 minutes. Combine the baked vegetables with sauce and pasta, mix.
Sprinkle the finished ratatouille with grated Parmesan (100 g) and enjoy a delicious dish.
With cheese
We suggest you familiarize yourself with the recipe for ratatouille with cheese. Grind the onion (1 pc.), Tomato (1 pc.), Bell pepper (1 pc.), Oregano and basil in a blender. Next, send pepper, salt, olive oil (1 tbsp.) To the vegetable mass, simmer for 10 minutes.
Thin slices cut zucchini (2 pcs.), Eggplant (2 pcs.) And tomatoes (2 pcs.). Pour the sauce into the mold, lay the prepared vegetables in layers as follows: first make a layer of zucchini, then - tomatoes, then lay the eggplant. Sprinkle everything on top with sliced Adyghe cheese (150 g) and again make a layer of zucchini.
Next, salt, pepper, pour olive oil and send to the oven. According to this recipe, ratatouille in the oven must be baked at 200 ° C for 45 minutes. Before cooking, cover the dish with foil. Then remove it and bake vegetables for another half hour.
With garlic and cheese
Consider another ratatouille recipe in the oven with baked cheese. It is no different from the usual. By the way, if you take suluguni instead of Adyghe cheese, the dish will turn out even tastier. To create the sauce you will need:
- three tomatoes;
- two cloves of garlic;
- one onion;
- one Bulgarian red pepper;
- pepper;
- salt;
- Italian herbs (to taste).
Basic components:
- 250 g of Adyghe cheese;
- two zucchini;
- two eggplants;
- three tomatoes.
This recipe ratatouille step by step implement as follows:
- Cook the sauce first. To do this, finely chop the onion, squeeze the garlic through a press, stew everything until golden.
- Pass pepper and tomatoes through a meat grinder, combine with onions, add herbs, salt, pepper and simmer for another 7 minutes.
- Cut the vegetables into rings. Pour the sauce into the mold, fold the cheese and vegetables alternately. The sauce should reach the middle of the form. If it is not enough, add boiled water.
- Sprinkle olive oil on top, sprinkle with herbs and salt.
- Cover with parchment or foil, send to the oven, preheated to 190 ° C, for 40 minutes.
- Next, remove the foil, reduce the heat to 180 ° C and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown.
French soup
What is ratatouille soup recipe? The first mention of this dish refers to the city of Nice. It was prepared from zucchini, tomatoes, pepper, onions and garlic mainly in families with a small income. Gradually, eggplant was added to the vegetables. This dish is healthy and tasty, suitable for many as a diet. So, we take:
- three bell peppers;
- three tomatoes of hard varieties;
- young eggplant without seeds;
- three soft tomatoes for the sauce;
- zucchini or zucchini;
- 4 cloves of garlic;
- three onions;
- a bunch of fresh herbs;
- vegetable oil for frying;
- salt;
- black pepper;
- spicy seasonings (cumin, thyme, rosemary);
- 1 bitter pepper (for seasoning).
Ratatouille soup recipe stipulates the following steps:
- Peel the eggplant, cut into circles, salt and leave for three minutes. You can also fill it with salt water, which after a while will turn brown. As a result, bitterness will come out of the eggplant.
- Bake bell pepper in the oven or on the stove. Then put it in a plastic bag so that the stiff skin can be removed more easily. After five minutes, peel the peppers from seeds and skins, cut into cubes.
- Cut zucchini or zucchini into large cubes, send to a hot skillet and fry in oil.
- Rinse the eggplant, squeeze it, dry it with a cloth and, cut into cubes, simmer on low heat.
- Finely chop the garlic (two cloves) and onion, fry.
- Make cruciform incisions on the tomatoes, dip in boiling water. Then quickly remove, remove the skin, chop coarsely and send to the onion. Put out all the same.
- Here, all the components are fried separately. Then mix everything, add spices, crushed greens and garlic, salt, pepper. Put everything in a hot skillet with vegetable oil and simmer for 20 minutes.
A ratatouille made in this way produces a large amount of juice. That is why it looks like a soup. Serve this dish cold or hot with chicken or on your own.
Reviews
Those housewives who know how to cook ratatouille say that this dish is loved by their loved ones. They claim that this masterpiece is eaten very quickly. One liked the ratatouille recipe made in the oven, while others admire the soup.
Many of this beautiful dish is often served on the festive table. These people claim that they have never tasted anything tastier. By the way, some vegetarians eat this dish every day. Cook and you this amazing ratatouille!