20 July 2009

Ratatouille

For months I've been wanting to watch Ratatouille again; I hadn't seen it since it was in the theaters. I kept forgetting to add it to the Netflix queue. Then when a two year old moved in with us, we decided not just to rent it but to buy it. We all watched it together the first night. And every night since then, Nina watches it over and over again. We all know the lines so well we could reenact the entire film.

We did reenact one part - the eponymous dish of the film. I had been rooting around Smitten Kitchen and stumbled upon this recipe. It looked simple enough, and we'd just gotten skinny eggplants in our CSA share. So I whipped out the mandoline and we made ratatouille, while Remi was on the screen doing just the same.

zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, pepper, summer squash, zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, pepper, zucchini...

The recipe was simple in its ingredients but time-consuming in its preparation. As I put both dishes in the oven (for we had more veggies than would fit one dish) I was tired and decided that this dish just takes too long to put together. But when it came out of the oven nearly an hour later, and we finally tasted it, I decided it was well worth it all.

One dish, Remi style

We served ours with quinoa.

8 comments:

Seana said...

WOW! Just wow. Oh, and I too LOVE the movie Ratatouille. Dare I say I might give this a try, I'm starting to really get gutsy with recipes huh? I made pesto last Saturday night and it came out pretty well, I need to make some changes as always, but all in all it was good. Thanks for giving me courage to try things. :)

Jon and Erin said...

that looks absolutely amazing!

Sergio said...

It was absolutely amazing. I wish you could have seen it in person, too. It really looks so beautiful and impressive. It's amazing how simple the ingredients are, yet how delicious and complex the finished dish was. I'm so glad I got to see it and eat it!

Emily said...

You should give it a try, Seana - I think you'll find it's a very accessible recipe!

Jon and Erin - are you growing any of those skinny eggplant?

Sergio takes credit for the Remi-style plating. My plating was a bit more...homey. :)

tom the farmer said...

Pretty. Didn't know you could make eggplant any more beautiful than it is by itself, but this recipe succeeds. It's nice to know too that you don't need to live in Southern France to have all the ingredients be local.

Anonymous said...

I made this tonight, inspired by you and the veggies in my fridge. It was soooo good and so pretty. I added some fresh mozz to the top when I took it out of the oven, so by the time we were ready to eat it was nice and melty. But unfortunately, the "we" was "me." Scott crashed on the sofa and Nora wouldn't eat it because she thought it would taste like a rat. Thanks for a great dinner!

heatherg

Anonymous said...

Inspired by your "dinner and a movie" idea, my 10 year old and I assembled this dish. I just can't tell you how much we enjoyed the cooking, eating, and watching the movie that inspired it all. I used to always put my eggplant in the swap box, never again! Thank you!

Emily said...

Heather - cheese is a great addition! I'll include that next time. Glad you enjoyed it!

Anon - I'm so glad you enjoyed the dish and the film! It's a beautiful movie and I was delighted to finally make the same dish as Remi. So glad it inspired you, too!