cinema | 1

Ratatouille

Ratatouille

Everyone dreamt at least once in their life of trading places with some movie character — join the breathtaking adventures, find a treasure, see distant worlds, try new delicious food. Well, we are certainly a bit late with searching for hidden treasures and few decades early for travelling to the distant worlds. At least we are perfectly in time for “tasting” films.

 

Ratatouille, 2007

Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere.

IMDb rating: 8.0

Genres: adventures, comedy

Certificate: 0+

Ratatouille (Film Foodie)

A little rat named Remy posses a great talent — he has a unique and sophisticated tasting. He is ready to risk his life to get some specific spice or to watch another episode of his favourite cooking show. Unfortunately, Remy’s family doesn’t share his passion. By chance Remy accesses the kitchen of an haute cuisine restaurant. He doesn’t miss a chance to do his best and to sharpen up his skills. Linguini, a newbie in this profession, who wasn’t endowed by culinary talent, will help him with it.

Several interesting facts about the movie:

  • Pixar animators invited Thomas Keller, a chef, to join the team while working on Ratatouille, so they can learn how to cook various dishes in his restaurant “The French Laundry”.
  • Keller provided the voice of one of the visitors at “Gusteau’s” — Colonel Remy. It was a pseudonym of Gilbert Renault, a hero of French Resistance during the World War II.
  • In WALL-E, another cartoon created by Pixar studio, you can see rat-shaped robots, which live inside a huge space ship in the junkyard. They are called REM-E.

The History of Ratatouille

Ratatouille (Film Foodie)

Ratatouille is a traditional Provence dish. It was first mentioned in 1778 in an old cook book. An interesting fact: the word “ratatouille” has been a synonym for the word “hodgepodge” for a long time because “rata” in spoken French means “food” and “touiller” — to mix, to stir. In French army for example they derisively called any braised dish “rata”. Honore de Balzac wrote in his book “A Start in Life” that his taste is too refined and stomach too sensitive to be able to digest a tavern ratatouille. In several French fairy tales witches even made ratatouille with mice and frogs.

Birthplace of ratatouille considered a region of modern Nice. Originally poor countrymen made this dish from the vegetables they had grown. At that time eggplants weren’t a part of the recipe — despite the fact that Arabs introduced Europeans to this plant back in XV century, it was not until XIX when it started to be grown everywhere. Earlier an eggplant was planted only for decorative purposes. Ratatouille gained popularity several decades ago when representatives of the modern French cuisine turned their attention to fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits.

There are three different ways on how to make a ratatouille:

  1. Vegetables are diced and braised with oil and greens.
  2. Each vegetable is cut and cooked separately; all the ingredients are mixed together only right before the serving.
  3. Or you can do it like it’s shown in the cartoon: arrange the sliced vegetables in alternating patterns concentrically towards the centre and put the dish into the oven.

There is one thing that always remains the same — a mix of Provence herbs. Rosemary, cumin, peppermint, basil, thyme, fennel (in some cases the mix contains also a truffle powder) — all these herbs give a ratatouille that unique taste, which Anton Ego, a restaurant critic, found remarkable in the cartoon.

By the way the perfect wine to serve your ratatouille with would be dry or medium dry Rosé (pink wine).

Classic Ratatouille Recipe

Ratatouille (Film Foodie)

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium size squash;
  • 1 medium size zucchini;
  • 1 medium size eggplant;
  • 10 medium size tomatoes;
  • 2 bell peppers;
  • 1 onion;
  • 4 cloves garlic;
  • olive oil;
  • fennel, rosemary, cumin, peppermint, basil, thyme, oregano (you can use ready-made mix of Provence herbs as well);
  • salt and pepper to taste.

1. Wash all the vegetables. Cut bell peppers in halves and remove the seeds. Lightly grease a baking pan with olive oil, spread the bell peppers and put in the preheated oven (200℃) for 20 minutes.

2. While the bell peppers are cooking, take 3 tomatoes, cut an X on the bottom of each of them and put in the boiling water for a few seconds. Peel them and cut into small pieces.

3. Finely chop onion and garlic cloves. A tip for all garlic-lovers: crush the cloves lightly with a flat of a knife before chopping, to make the flavour more intense.

4. Peel and cut bell peppers into tiny slices after they get cold.

5. Pour some olive oil in a frying pan. First sauté onion until translucent, then add garlic to it. After about one minute add tomatoes and mix of herbs. Leave the sauce on the heat for 5-10 minutes, so the additional liquid evaporates. Salt and pepper it if you like.

6. Put the ready piperade sauce into a food processor and blend until the mixture is smooth.

7. Cut squash, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes into equal 3-4 mm thick circles.

8. Spread the sauce on the baking pan. Arrange the sliced vegetables in overlapping concentric circles from the outer edge to the inside of the baking pan. Make sure there is no empty space in the pan.

9. Pour some oil on the vegetables, add salt and pepper according to your taste and put three sprigs of thyme on top.

10. Cover baking pan with parchment paper and put in the oven (preheated to 180℃) for 55-60 minutes. After that remove the parchment paper and bake for another 30 minutes. Ensure the vegetables don’t burn.

 

Voila — your fantastic dinner a-la Provence is ready. If you want to experiment with the classic recipe, go for it! Some people add grated mozzarella on top of ratatouille 5 minutes before it’s ready, another like to sprinkle the vegetables with wine or balsamic vinegar. Many consider ratatouille a perfect garnish for any type of meat, but of course it is an awesome dish by itself. As for me, I think ratatouille is a wonderful topping for toasted bread, especially if you top it with feta cheese.

Maybe you have something to add to the classic Provence dish too? Arm yourself with knife and spatula, play the Pixar studio cartoon on the background and enjoy your wholesome evening!

Author: Kira Shmeleva
Translation: Inna Guseva