Remy's Ratatouille

I have always loved the Disney Pixar film Ratatouille.  For those who have seen the film, you can probably see why I love it so much. For those that haven’t, it’s about this tiny little rat with a keen sense of smell that has a secret dream of becoming a chef. When Remy is separated from his rat family at the beginning of the story, he finds himself at a famous restaurant in Paris. He ends up helping a young boy, Linguini, who has absolutely no idea how to cook, work his way to the spot as top chef at the restaurant. 

The part in the movie that always resonates with me is when Remy tries to get his rat brother Emile to taste the magic of food.
Remy tells Emile to try a piece of cheese, followed by a grape. Then he tells his brother to try them together. When Emile takes a bite, a few sparks flicker in his head, but when Remy tries this combination of both the cheese and grape together, he sees swirls and stars from the combination of flavors.  I suppose I love this  because Remy understands how exciting it is that two completely separate ingredients truly become something magical when put together.

Since seeing Ratatouille I’ve always had a desire to recreate the Ratatouille that they make in the film, and finally, after far too long, I finally have. The recipe in the film is not the traditional, rustic ratatouille but a confit biyaldi, where the vegetables are finely sliced and placed in a baking dish. The confit biyaldi in the movie is a recipe by none other than Thomas Keller. Below is a slightly easier, more adapted recipe. I used a glass pie plate because I didn’t have a circular deep baking dish, and it worked oddly well. This dish was so delicious, very easy, and I will definitely be making it again. What's more, it's incredibly beautiful. I just wish I had a small rat-chef named Remy to help me make it.

For the Ratatouille: 

(adapted from smitten kitchen )

{ 1/2 onion, finely chopped / 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced / 1 cup tomato puree / 

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided / 1 small eggplant / 1 small zucchini / 

1 small yellow squash / 1 red bell pepper / few sprigs fresh thyme / salt and pepper }

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. 

Pour tomate puree into bottom of an oval (or circular in my case) baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper. 

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends of the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube. On a mandolin, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick. 

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slice of prepared vegetables concentrically form the outer edge to the inside of then akin isn, overlapping so just a small amount of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit. 

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the fresh thyme sprigs over the dish. 

Cover the dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. 

Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.