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Ratatouille
There's Nothing Cheesy About this Classic Dish
By Donna Smith
"The beauty of this dish is its simplicity," Chef Mould says. "All the fresh ingredients are gathered and simply sauteed until cooked. It is a very easy dish to prepare."
Chef Robert says that old recipes called for boiling the ingredients separately, but he recommends that each vegetable be pan seared separately because the brown coating achieved helps hold the vegetables together for the last stage of cooking. He says they are cooked together but added one at a time in this order: 1) onions, tomato, peppers, garlic; 2) eggplant; and 3) zucchini. "I like to add some hot pepper to it," he says. "I also like the different vegetables cut big for a more chunky look."
Are there different variations of ratatouille? Yes. But while there are different versions of the dish depending on what part of the world you are in, most all include some sort of variation of the main vegetables, Chef Mould says.
Chef Robert agrees. "Basically, the preparation is the same but the service varies: cold in salad, in gratin, as a garnish, sometimes as a sauce if it is slightly overcooked or even soup," he says.
Ratatouille goes well with many dishes. Chef Robert likes it with grilled lamb, most grilled fish, rolled in a chicken breast as stuffing or as ratatouille crepe. He also enjoys it on sauteed veal covered with melted cheese.
"Most of the time I serve ratatouille as a side dish, but in some countries it is considered a main course and simply served with crusty French bread and a light red wine," Chef Mould says. Chef Robert's wine choices for ratatouille are Rose de Provence, any red or white Provence wines, Beaujolais, Cote du Rhone and Pinot Griggio.
