Celebrate Summer’s Bounty with a Classic Provençal Ratatouille

The sun is shining, the days are long, and gardens are overflowing with the vibrant flavors of summer. What better way to celebrate the season than with a classic French dish that showcases these fresh ingredients? Today, we’re diving into ratatouille, a Provençal vegetable stew bursting with color and taste. The cute Pixar movie Ratatouille is also worth a look if you haven’t seen it yet too!

This French vegetable stew is a symphony of textures and tastes. Tender eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and onion mingle with juicy tomatoes, all bathed in a fragrant herb sauce. It’s a vegetarian masterpiece that’s perfect as a main course, a delightful side dish, or even tossed with pasta for a comforting summer meal. Ratatouille is all about simplicity. This traditional French recipe is a symphony of summer’s most colorful vegetables, all simmered together until tender and bursting with flavor, creating a dish that’s both light and satisfying.

Here’s what you’ll need:

The Summer Stars: Eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers (any color you like!), tomatoes, onion, garlic.
Flavor Builders: Olive oil, fresh herbs (basil, thyme), herbes de Provence, salt, pepper.
The Beauty of Flexibility. This recipe is meant to be adapted so use what’s fresh and abundant in your garden or at your local market.

My personal recipe for ratatouille is originally based on Richard Olney’s Provence the Beautiful cookbook and serves 10-12. Adapt it to your own tastes!

Summer Ratatouille Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup olive oil
2 lb onions, coarsely chopped
2 lb eggplants, thickly sliced and chopped into cubes
2 lb red, yellow or green sweet peppers, halved lengthwise, seeded and cut into squares
2 lb ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
coarse sea salt
1 Tbs herbes de Provence
bunch of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 lb zucchini, thickly sliced and chopped into cubes
freshly ground pepper
fresh basil leaves

Warm half cup of the olive oil in an 8qt stockpot over low heat. Add the onions and cook gently until softened but not colored, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon as you begin to cut up and progressively add all the other vegetables, with the exception of the zucchini. Add the salt and herbes de Provence to taste and stir gently, scraping the bottom of the pot, until the vegetables begin to release their liquid. Raise the heat to medium and bring the liquid to a boil. From the time the onions were added to the pot to the moment the boil is reached, 45 minutes to 1 hour should elapse.
Bury the bay leaves and thyme sprigs beneath the vegetables, reduce the heat to maintain a light, bubbling simmer and cover with the lid slightly ajar. After about 30 minutes, add the zucchini, forcing it beneath the liquid’s surface with the back of the wooden spoon. Simmer slightly covered for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until all of the vegetables are meltingly tender.
Remove the lid and continue to simmer on low heat for about 1 hour as the juices reduce to a deep, mahogany-color. Gently stir the vegetables until all are evenly coated with the reduced juices. Remove the thyme stems and bay leaves. Take off the heat and turn the cooked vegetables into a large dish to cool.
Grind some pepper and stir several spoonfuls of the remaining olive oil into the cooled vegetables. Unless the dish is meant to be consumed at a single sitting, spoon only as much as you think necessary for the meal into a smaller serving dish belle adding a few more drops of olive oil to the surface. Tear basil leaves into fragments and scatter them over the top. Tightly cover the remainder after cooling and refrigerate. Serve with a crusty loaf of French bread and a glass of dry rosé wine. Bon appetit!

Serving Up Sunshine:

Ratatouille is a delightful main course on its own with some crusty French bread for dipping. It also shines as a side dish alongside grilled lamb, chicken, pork, fish, or even pasta. Leftovers? No problem! Ratatouille tastes even better the next day, as the flavors have a chance to deepen. So grab your favorite basket and head into your garden. With a little creativity and some fresh summer vegetables, you can create a fantastic dish that’s both delicious and heartwarming.