Ingredients

  • 6-8 fresh tomatoes
  • 1 yellow or sweet onion, chopped
  • 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 3 small/medium zucchini, chopped
  • 3 small/medium yellow squash, chopped
  • 1 small eggplant, chopped
  • Fresh rosemary
  • Fresh thyme
  • Fresh basil
  • Butter
  • Pepper and salt to taste

Directions

  1. So let’s start with the tomatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Once you have the pot of water on the stove and you’re waiting for it to come to a boil, prepare a large bowl of ice water and set aside. Take your tomatoes and pare them. This means cutting an“x” on the bottom of the tomatoes and cutting out the stem on the top. Once the water is boiling, you want to blanch the tomatoes by adding them to the boiling water for about 30 seconds or until the skin of the tomatoes begins to peel off. Remove and immediately add to the ice water to cool down. Once cool, peel the skin off of the tomatoes. Set the tomatoes aside.
  2. Take a clean, large pot and put on medium heat. Add a pat of butter. Once melted, add your garlic and your onions. Sweat until fragrant and translucent on low heat. Add your zucchini and your yellow squash. Let sweat for a bit until tender.
  3. While you are sweating your zucchini and your yellow squash, go ahead and coat your eggplant in salt. Let that sit for a bit until the eggplant begins to brown. Once brown, rinse the salt off of the eggplant with cold water. This whole process is to soften/tenderize the eggplant. Add the eggplant to your other vegetables. Don’t be afraid to add more butter if needed or turn down the heat. You don’t want color on your vegetables.
  4. Take the tomatoes in your hands and crush them in your fists, then add them to the pot. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can always use San Marzano. San Marzano tomatoes have an amazing flavor and are the only tomatoes I will use for tomato sauce, which I will post later on.
  5. Add your fresh herbs. I would suggest finely chopping these, but you can also make a sachet if you have some cheesecloth and cooking twine available. Do NOT season with salt until the very end; you want your Ratatouille to reduce. If you add salt before it reduces, you’ll end up with a very salty dish.
  6. Bring your Ratatouille to a boil then reduce it to a simmer. Let it go until you get the desired consistency. I like to add a little butter as I go. I know it’s very non-traditional when it comes to French cuisine, butI just love the way the fat of the butter balances out the acidity of the tomatoes.
  7. Serve the hot Ratatouille in a bowl with a warm piece of baguette, butter, and maybe a glass of wine. The great thing about Ratatouille is it’s even better the next day as the ingredients have had time to mingle. This is a beautiful, inexpensive dish to make for your loved ones. Bon Appetit!

Chef's notes