Ratatouille

Before last summer, I’d never even heard of a dish called ratatouille. But my brother wanted to see the new Pixar cartoon (called Ratatouille, of course), so we went. It turned out to be an adorable film about a cartoon rat who wants to be a famous French chef, and ratatouille was his greatest triumph. We were in Little Rock this past weekend for a wedding, and I got to visit the fabulous farmer’s market downtown. I just picked up what looked good – squash, zucchini, tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, basil and blackberries – and later realized I had almost all the ingredients for ratatouille. I took an easier route and made a more traditional stew-like version as opposed to Remy’s finely sliced creation. We just ate it alongside bread, but it would probably be yummy over a starch, also. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t wow a French food critic, but it was good and summery nonetheless.

Click below for recipe