Ratatouille

Ratatouille challenge; for chefs only! (ok… for anyone with cooking confidence)

I recently read a disappointing, magazine article about preparing summer ratatouille. The directions called for cooking each vegetable separately in olive oil until tender so the ratatouille isn’t watery or mushy.

The author stated each vegetable must be sauteed separately and alone to be properly cooked, then all of the vegetables are mixed at the end-yikes!

When I was a young, CIA student studying International Cuisine, legendary chef Bruno Ehlmer challenged our class to make summer ratatouille. We were instructed that ratatouille is a delicious, healthy, Mediterranean, vegetable stew cooking in one pot.

The method we were challenged with was to put a small rondeau on the flame to heat, as the rondeau heated,

Peel/pare and dice 3 onions, 5 red bell peppers & 5 cloves of garlic-add olive oil to the rondeau and begin sweating the vegetables. (seasoning as you cooked) The point was to cook with passion and confidence!

In the time it took for the vegetables to soften, wash, pare and dice 4 zucchini, add to the sweated vegetables…

And then clean and dice 3 eggplant, add (seasoning as you cooked) and finally boil, shock and concasse 8 plum tomatoes, add.

Finish with chiffonade of basil and seasoning. It was a one pot stew and took confidence, speed and understanding of the different textures of the vegetables so that each were cooked appropriately and the flavors melded together.

And it was as delicious then as it is now!

Chefs, challenge yourself and try to cook this recipe without mise en placing all of the vegetables… cut as you cook.

And please, don’t cook everything separately. Yikes!