C'est la Vie Cuisine

Bonjour my friends,

For my first recipe blog, I decided to go with a classic: la Ratatouille. A lot of you might know this delicious dish by watching the movie, but don’t worry, I didn’t hire rats as sous-chefs in my kitchen.

Believe it or not, I tried making ratatouille for the first time only a few months ago. I have made plenty of “ragout” type dishes but never really followed the ratatouille recipe. It is a perfect summer dish, typical southern French, the flavors blossom together perfectly and you got to love any dish that has Herbes de Provence in it.

In my opinion, here are the three key things to follow to make your ratatouille a success:

• Cut all the ingredients into little even cubes. The key term here being, even. I’m not gonna lie to you, if you make ratatouille for 6, you’re going to be chopping away for a while. But it’s really worth it. It helps to cook the vegetables evenly, and also makes the textures of the dish very agreeable in your mouth.
• Do not include the tomatoes’ seeds. It keeps your ratatouille from becoming a spaghetti sauce (also very good, but not the goal here).
• Finally, make sure you incorporate the ingredients in the right order while cooking. Some vegetables take longer to cook than others, so incorporating them first allows them to be fully cooked.

Of course, there are tons of different recipes for ratatouille out there. You’re more than welcome to bring your own twist to the recipe. I happen to really like this recipe, it’s simple and delicious!

Ratatouille – C’est la Vie Cuisine

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For 2 persons:

• 1 onion
• 1 squash
• 1 eggplant
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• Minced garlic
• Herbes de Provence
• Salt, pepper
• Olive Oil

Cut all vegetables evenly into small cubes. For the tomatoes, remove the seeds first (you can keep them to make a sauce for another dish the next day).

In a sauté pan (or cast iron pan) heat some oil and incorporate ingredients in the following order (separate by 3 to 4 minutes between each vegetables)

1. Squash & Eggplants
2. Onion & Red and Green Bell Peppers
3. Tomatoes
4. Garlic
5. Salt, Pepper & Herbes de Provence

Cover and let it cook for 20 min. Uncover to let it cook for another 3 min. Add some olive oil and serve. You can add some parsley on top to make it pretty!

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Secret Ingredient: the vegetable’s cut: Even cubes

Radio Station: Francis Cabrel

Movie to watch after dinner: Ratatouille (of course)

So Enjoy, Bon Appétit and C’est la Vie!