Chef Ehlmer challenged our class to prepare ratatouilli... with confidence!
put a rondeau on the fire, 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! And Fast!
Then, in the time it took for the vegetables to soften & develop flavor, we had to wash, pare and dice 4 zucchini, add to the sweated vegetables… then add 2 diced eggplant and then 8 peeled & seeded tomatoes and finally basil...
I naively volunteered for the challenge & was able to accomplish my first ratatouille-got an A!
Ratatouille
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 cooked in one pot. I'd never heard of ratatouille, I'd never heard of orzo, olla podrida, risotto...
This recipe is great as a vegetable side, with macaroni, in quiche and as a salad.
Prep Time: 2o min
Cooking Time: 20 min
Ingredients
Yield: 4 portions
Ingredients
2 oz. Olive oil
1 Cup Spanish onions, diced
1 Cup. Red bell peppers, diced
5 cloves Garlic, sliced
2 Cups. Zucchini, washed & diced
2 Cups. Eggplant, diced
1/2 Cup. Basil, rinsed, chiffonade
3 Cups. Plum tomatoes, concasse (peeled, deseeded, diced)
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
t.t. Black pepper
How to make Ratatouilli
Step 1
Ratatouilli is a delicious, vegetable stew made popular in the movie of the same name. It's rustic but the vegetables must be fresh, ripe and cut evenly so that everything cooks together deliciously in one pan.
Sometimes the same ingredients are slice, overlapped and baked decoratively... it's delicious but not quite the same.
Place a small rondeau on the flame to heat, when the rondeau is heated, add olive oil & place the onions, red bell peppers & garlic to the rondeau and begin sweating the vegetables. (seasoning as you cook)
When the vegetables are softened, add the diced zucchini to the sweated vegetable and cook for about 3 or 4 minutes, then add the eggplant, continue cooking.
(seasoning as you cooked) and finally boil, shock and concasse 8 plum tomatoes, add.
Step 2
Finish with chiffonade of basil and seasoning. This recipe is great as, with poached eggs, in a quiche or the following day as a salad.
