Julia Child's Ratatouille

I have to admit that I was expecting a "prettier" dish. The movie Ratatouille made this famous dish look like a work of art. The eggplant, zucchini and such were cut into coins and then laid out in a casserole like a deck of cards. Not so with Julia Child's version.

The trick to ratatouille, according to Julia, is cooking the elements separately first and then combining them in the end to simmer. This method retains the "shape and character" of each ingredient. If you don't own the book, you can find the recipe here, straight from the publisher (it's a pdf):

http://knopfdoubleday.com/marketing/cooking/Ratatouille-condensed.pdf

I would also highly recommend watching this entertaining and informative video. It's an "homage to Julia Child", and an excellent demonstration of how to prepare the ratatouille.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQlr1RYgrk

The dish I made was pretty good and it only took an hour or so to make. I think it would have been better if I had salted the eggplant ahead of time to get out the bitter taste (I just didn't have time for this--I was hungry!). Also, I didn't have onions on hand, so this was a missing element of the dish.

Cook the zucchini and eggplant first, one minute on each side, then cook the onion and bell peppers.

Peel the tomatoes. This is the first time I did this and I was surprised how easy it is! Drop the tomatoes into boiling water for exactly ten seconds. Then peel!

Layer everything together and simmer.

Bon Appetite!