Recipe Result: Good flavor, nice and light, but texture was kind of compromised by going overboard with the dried herbs
I say "Attempt #1, sorta" because I've tried this a couple of times and a couple of different ways, but never really documented it. What is ratatouille, aside from a great Pixar movie? It's a traditional eggplant and squash dish of southern France, or Provence. A friend and I got to spend a couple of days in Avignon and the food there was amazing, and for a little while after that trip I tried to recreate some of those flavors on my own.
In the process, I realized Provençal cuisine really reminds me of my mom's Haitian cooking. It's country/peasant-style cooking (compared to what everyone think of with French cuisine), and it relies heavily on tomatoes, onions/shallots, garlic, and good herbs. A lot of it is relatively slow-cooked meat + veggie dishes that warm you up inside and are deeply satisfying, kind of like a good bowl of chili. One important ingredient of Provençal food is anchovies. It sounds kind of weird at first, and by themselves they just taste fishy and salty. But when sautéed in oil, it adds a really nice depth of flavor to your dish. It's kind of like how fish sauce works in Thai food.
This time, I chose not to follow a cookbook or online recipe and tried to take an intuitive approach to it. One big difference between the standard recipe and my way was that I sliced up my zucchini into really thin rounds, (half-rounds for the eggplant to match the zucchini slice sizes). Traditionally you cut everything into cubes so everything is the same size, but I just wanted the end result to look more interesting.
I mean, doesn't this look more fun to put on your fork than some lame-ass centimeter cube? Not to mention that cutting the eggplant this way made it a lot easier to salt it, in order to draw out the moisture and make it easier to sauté. Look at those slices sweating after just 20 min.
One thing I realized I neglected upon finishing was that it could have been a lot more tomato-ey. I thought a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste with the cooking liquid would be nice and subtle but sufficient. It tasted good in the end, but it didn't taste like what I remember from Avignon. I'll add in some tomato puree or whole ripe tomatoes the next time. Also, next time I'll ease up on the herbes de Provence. I ended up putting in so much that the pieces of dried rosemary were messing with the texture of the veggies.
You can find my full recipe after the jump. Try it out, and please do leave a comment to let me know how it worked out for you.
Ingredients:
1 eggplant
1 large zucchini
A few Tbsp of olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic
1 anchovy fillet
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp herbes de Provence
1 or 2 Tbsp salt (to extract moisture from the eggplant)
salt and pepper, to taste
1. Cut your zucchini into thin slices, as thin as you can get, I was able to get them about 2 mm thick. Your eggplant rounds will most likely be bigger than the zucchini, so slice the eggplant in half lengthwise, and slice it as thin as the zucchini. The goal is to have the veggies all the same size, so they take the same amount of time to cook. (I think it's time for me to buy a mandolin slicer)
2. Raw eggplant has a lot of moisture, so you'll want to draw some of that out before you put it into the pan. Lay out your eggplant slices in a colander so that all of them have a good amount of surface area showing (like in the first photo), and sprinkle on that Tbsp of salt. Let it sit for a half hour, let the eggplant sweat out the moisture. Afterward, squeeze out the rest of the moisture, rinse the eggplant in water, and then pat it dry with a paper towel.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a big saucepan, and sauté the zucchini over medium heat until it is softer but not completely done. It will undergo another cooking step later. Remove the zucchini from the pan and set aside.
4. Heat another Tbsp of the oil in the saucepan and sauté however much eggplant you can fit, medium heat again. Sauté until it is all soft and a little translucent. Remove it from the pan and set aside. Repeat with the remaining eggplant slices, adding oil as necessary.
5. Wipe off the pan, removing any eggplant seeds and bits of eggplant or zucchini left over. Mince the garlic, chop up the anchovy fillet, and mash the two of them together. Heat another Tbsp of olive oil in the saucepan, and add the garlic/anchovy mixture. When the garlic/anchovy is fragrant, add the diced onion. Sauté until the onion is somewhat translucent.
6. Add the tomato paste to the pan with 1/4 cup of water, and add the herbes de Provence. (I used more than 1 tsp and I realized it was overkill, I was getting bits of herbs stuck in my teeth, not fun. So I'm recommending starting with just a scant 1/2 tsp) This is the point where I would add the chopped ripe tomatoes or tomato puree for a better sauce.
7. Add the eggplant and zucchini back to the pan, add salt and pepper to taste, cover it and let simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or more. You want the flavors of the dried herbs to come out, and for the tomato paste flavor to permeate the veggies.
1 eggplant
1 large zucchini
A few Tbsp of olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic
1 anchovy fillet
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp herbes de Provence
1 or 2 Tbsp salt (to extract moisture from the eggplant)
salt and pepper, to taste
1. Cut your zucchini into thin slices, as thin as you can get, I was able to get them about 2 mm thick. Your eggplant rounds will most likely be bigger than the zucchini, so slice the eggplant in half lengthwise, and slice it as thin as the zucchini. The goal is to have the veggies all the same size, so they take the same amount of time to cook. (I think it's time for me to buy a mandolin slicer)
2. Raw eggplant has a lot of moisture, so you'll want to draw some of that out before you put it into the pan. Lay out your eggplant slices in a colander so that all of them have a good amount of surface area showing (like in the first photo), and sprinkle on that Tbsp of salt. Let it sit for a half hour, let the eggplant sweat out the moisture. Afterward, squeeze out the rest of the moisture, rinse the eggplant in water, and then pat it dry with a paper towel.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a big saucepan, and sauté the zucchini over medium heat until it is softer but not completely done. It will undergo another cooking step later. Remove the zucchini from the pan and set aside.
4. Heat another Tbsp of the oil in the saucepan and sauté however much eggplant you can fit, medium heat again. Sauté until it is all soft and a little translucent. Remove it from the pan and set aside. Repeat with the remaining eggplant slices, adding oil as necessary.
5. Wipe off the pan, removing any eggplant seeds and bits of eggplant or zucchini left over. Mince the garlic, chop up the anchovy fillet, and mash the two of them together. Heat another Tbsp of olive oil in the saucepan, and add the garlic/anchovy mixture. When the garlic/anchovy is fragrant, add the diced onion. Sauté until the onion is somewhat translucent.
6. Add the tomato paste to the pan with 1/4 cup of water, and add the herbes de Provence. (I used more than 1 tsp and I realized it was overkill, I was getting bits of herbs stuck in my teeth, not fun. So I'm recommending starting with just a scant 1/2 tsp) This is the point where I would add the chopped ripe tomatoes or tomato puree for a better sauce.
7. Add the eggplant and zucchini back to the pan, add salt and pepper to taste, cover it and let simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or more. You want the flavors of the dried herbs to come out, and for the tomato paste flavor to permeate the veggies.
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