Ratatouille Love

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

What kind of grand plans do you have for today?  Patrick and I will be celebrating tomorrow since today will be a bit hectic at work.  You can imagine working at a fancy restaurant on a day like today.  Just spreading the love one dish at a time :)  

Speaking of spreading love through food... I wanted to share my latest dish.  You might recognize it from a certain Pixar movie...

Ratatouille

That's right - it's Ratatouille!  I made it gratin-style like in the movie.  Traditionally everything is chopped up, but this version is inspired by a dish called Confit Byaldi, which Thomas Keller (who served as a food consultant for the movie) adapted for Ratatouille.  

I made it in my heart shaped casserole dish, which I received from Jessica over at Word&Play for my wedding shower a couple years ago.  Needless to say, I always get a sudden urge to use it this time of year.

But of course, any baking dish will do.  I loved making this because it is beautiful, yummy, low in calories, and high in nutrition.  It's also easy to make (though a bit time consuming if you don't have a mandoline to slice all the vegetables.) 

I ended up adapting both Thomas Keller and Smitten Kitchen's version of this dish.  

It starts out by making a tomato sauce.  Saute some diced onion, diced red bell pepper, and garlic in olive oil.  Add some crushed tomatoes and some herbs (I used thyme and bay).  Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Cover the bottom of your dish with your lovely tomato sauce.

Slice a Japanese eggplant, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and about 3 plum tomatoes.  Line up the vegetable slices like fallen dominoes.  (They didn't have Japanese eggplant at my store, so I had to use a regular one, which is fine, it's just a little wider.  So I quartered my slices to make them roughly the same size).

Stop to admire the pretty colors.

The closer together you place the vegetables, the better it will look.

Brush the top with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and some herbs (I used fresh thyme).

Cover with foil or parchment paper.  As they don't sell heart-shaped parchment paper, I traced the bottom of my baking dish to get the right shape.

Bake at 375-400 degrees or until the vegetables are tender.  Remove the cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes or so until the liquids evaporate and the vegetables get slightly golden.

While it is still hot, I recommend grating some parmesan cheese over the top... because why not?

Serve with about any starch or grain imaginable.  Over a toasted baguette, tossed in some pasta, with mashed potatoes... I ate mine with some brown rice since I had some leftover.  It was spectacular!

This can be served as a side dish or the main entree.  If you're like my husband, you may need to add some protein, like a side of grilled shrimp or chicken.  This would be an awesome dish for a pot luck.  

I'm thinking since this dish is so low in calories, that means my next heart-shaped venture will involve sugar and chocolate... like brownies or deep-dish chocolate chip cookies?  Hmm...

Happy Valentine's Day!  :)

oo,