French cuisine

Ratatouille

Name: Ratatouille
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: French cuisine
Ingredients: 1 Aubergine; 2 Courgette; 2 Bell pepper; 600 g Tomatoes; 1 Onion; 3 clove Garlic; 6 tbsp Olive oil; 3 sprig Thyme; 1 pinch Basil; to taste Salt and pepper

Ratatouille niçoise

A Provençal vegetable stew where each vegetable is cooked separately before they meet — otherwise it turns to mush.

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 45 min
Total: 65 min
Difficulty: Easy

Servings

Units

Ingredients

Aubergine — in 2 cm cubes1
Courgette — in cubes2
Bell pepper2
Tomatoes — ripe, peeled600 g
Onion1
Garlic3 clove
Olive oil6 tbsp
Thyme3 sprig
Basil — at the end1 pinch
Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1
Fry the aubergine over high heat in two spoons of oil until the edges brown, then set it aside. Aubergine drinks oil instantly — do not add more, it gives it back later.
8 min
2
In the same pan, fry the courgette until golden, about four minutes, and add it to the aubergine. It should stay firm.
4 min
3
Fry the pepper until soft with a few charred spots and set it aside as well.
6 min
4
In the remaining oil, sweat the onion until soft, add the garlic and thyme and give it half a minute, until fragrant.
7 min
5
Add the tomatoes and cook them down over medium heat into a thick sauce, about twenty minutes. It should hold on a spoon rather than run off it.
20 min
6
Return the vegetables to the pan, season and warm them through together for ten minutes over low heat. Take it off, add the basil and let it stand — ratatouille is better warm than hot.
10 min

About the dish

The classic mistake with ratatouille is one pot. Courgette, aubergine and pepper cook at different speeds and hold different amounts of water: together they stew into mush, separately they stay recognisable.

The second is the tomatoes. They cook down longer than the rest, into a thick sauce, and only then do the vegetables come back — that sauce is what binds the dish.

Worth knowing

— Ratatouille is better the next day: the vegetables trade flavours overnight in the fridge.
— There is no need to salt the aubergine in advance — modern varieties are not bitter.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories: 240 kcal
Protein: 5 g
Fat: 16 g
Carbs: 20 g