Since we saw the movie 'Ratatouille'; I have always wanted to make this colourful dish - a french vegetarian dish which reminded the food critic of his mom..I saw that the vegetables were layered around a thin sauce and then baked; but I had no recipe. I went into YouTube to see how the rat made ratatouille but it was not much help.
Internet provided so many recipes and almost all recipes had tomato and onion and garlic. Something like the Basic Italian Tomato sauce. All the vegetables had to be cut into perfect rounds...
But..... some invariably were not 'perfect'.
Some recipes said add these imperfect vegetable pieces to the sauce. I loved this!! I made a sauce with all the vegetables and tomato.
Never waste food!!
It came out so well....and so beautiful!
Preheat oven to 180 C for 10 minutes.
Ingredients:
Tomato - 1 kilo
Onion - 2 medium
Celery - 5 tbsp
Green Capsicum - 1 large
Carrot - 1 large
Garlic - 5 cloves
Salt
Pepper - 1 tsp
Dry Red chilli - 3
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Holy basil - 1 handful
To be cut into rounds
Yellow Zucchini - 1 large
Green Zucchini - 1 large (or)
Cucumber - 2 medium
Indian violet round brinjal / Long thin aubergine - 3
Potato - 4 medium
Red Capsicum - 2 large
Flavoured oil -mix together
Olive oil - 8 tbsp
Garlic - 4 cloves
Salt - 1 tsp
Thyme - 1 tsp
Basil - 1 tsp
Leek (optional) - 3 tbsp
Rosemary - 1 tsp
Red chilly flakes - 1 tsp
Method:
Cut the onions, garlic, carrots, green capsicum.
Chop all the tomatoes.
Heat olive oil and saute the onion, garlic, celery and carrot until onion becomes transparent.
Add all the other vegetables and cook covered on a low flame. Do not add any water.
Store the brinjal and potato immersed in salted water under ready to use.
If any of the vegetables are looking less-than-perfect, chop them and add to the sauce mixture. Add the salt, pepper, sugar and red chilly. Continue cooking till all the vegetables are soft and well cooked.
Cool and puree.
Spread a 3 - 4 ladles of the sauce slightly thickly on the baking dish.
If you think the vegetable slice is large, cut into half and use.
(I made this dish in 2 different vessels. It seems like a large portion, but it is better to make 2 portions!)
Pour the flavoured oil on top.
Cover with Aluminium foil and bake at 180 C for 40 minutes.
You can open the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes for caramelising the vegetables.
(I did not...as I did not see the 'rat' do it!!)
P.S.: If you wish, boil some pasta and mix with the vegetables and sauce. It tastes good too.
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