Layered Ratatouille

Dear all,

Back from the holidays, I felt like tying up loose ends before the end of the year. One of these loose ends is layered Ratatouille, my recipe for this month.

When I watched the movie Ratatouille, I was astonished to see a beautifully layered dish.

I had known Ratatouille as tasty peasant food from the south of France. It originated in the area around Nice and its name means 'tossing food'. You get the idea? The original used only zucchini, tomatoes and bell peppers. Later aubergines were added.

In the movie, Ratatouille looked very sophisticated. Ratatouille producer, Brad Lewis, had asked the American celebrity chef Thomas Keller, consultant for the movie, how he would prepare this dish if he had to serve it to the most famous food critic in his restaurant.

Keller suggested the layered Ratatouille. Of course, he fanned the vegetables with a palette knife and made two different sauces, one a pipérade (made from roasted peppers) and the other one a tomato sauce.

By the way, I love Pixar movies. Especially Ratatouille is close to my heart; the rat with gourmet taste makes me smile every time.

As you know, I don’t aspire to serve Michelin star dishes in my kitchen. I decided to combine the pipérade and the tomato sauce and I arranged my vegetables by hand in layers. The result might not look as perfect as the Ratatouille in the movie – but it tastes and looks attractive enough for any dinner party.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

Layered Ratatouille

Ingredients:

• 1 medium yellow zucchini
• 1 medium green zucchini
• 3 medium aubergines
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 2 red bell peppers
• 5 cloves garlic
• 200 ml tomato puree
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
• salt
• pepper

Method:

To achieve an aesthetically pleasing result, you need to have vegetables with roughly the same diameter. I use differently coloured zucchini for effect. If you find only one colour, never mind. If you don’t have Herbes de Provence use any herbs you like. This mixture of dried herbs usually contains rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory and marjoram.

A normal Ratatouille contains bell peppers. Because you cannot layer bell peppers, I have included them in the sauce. Roast the bell peppers by holding them into a flame. They should darken all around and the skin should blister.

Place the roasted peppers into a bowl and cover them with cling film so they keep steaming while cooling down.

Rub away the darkened skin. You might need to rinse the bell peppers under water.

Clean them and blend the flesh to puree.

Mix the blended peppers with the tomato puree, the herbes de provence, two teaspoons salt, pepper and two tablespoons olive oil.

Wash and cut the zucchinis, the aubergines and the tomatoes into thin slices.

Spread the remaining olive oil over the bottom of a pie form.

Cover it with the tomato sauce. Arrange the slices on top of the sauce in a fanlike manner.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the slices and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for one hour.

Carrots, Moroccan Style

Dear all,

Carrots are a gift of nature and I could not live – or cook – without them. You can find them almost anywhere anytime; they burst with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients and they taste wonderful.

Whenever I can, I hide carrots in food. You will find them in my tomato sauce, in burgers of any kind and various recipes with legumes.

This month I would like to feature a recipe where carrots play the hero: carrots Moroccan style. This is a light, nutritious side dish, ready in a few minutes, yet it offers a strong flavour profile that can complement many different main dishes.
Just recently I paired them with a spinach pie at a vegetarian dinner and I dare say my guests enjoyed them. They also go well with any kind of chicken or fish dish.

The Moroccan style in the name refers to the spice mix: ground cumin, cinnamon and chilli powder combine with garlic and parsley to underline the sweetness of the carrots. It is surprising how well cumin and cinnamon go together. Together they transform each other, a typical example where the sum of two ingredients creates a bigger whole.

Another advantage is the fact that you these carrots taste warm or cold. You can prepare them in advance when you host a dinner party and just warm them up for a few minutes in the oven or a microwave – or just serve them cold as they are.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family
 

Ingredients:

(for 4 servings) 

• 6 big carrots
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
• 2 big garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
• salt
• pepper
• 2 lemons
• 50 ml water

Method:
Wash the parsley. Flat leaf parsley tastes much better than curly one but sometimes it is difficult to find. If you cannot buy flat leaf parsley, use curly one.

 Clean and crush the garlic. To stabilize the healthy ingredients in garlic you need to expose it to air for five to 10 minutes. After this time the heart protecting nutrients of garlic are resistant to heat.

 Peel the carrots. I use a peeler, but if you want you can also scrape them or just brush them.

Halve the carrots lengthwise and cut them diagonally to get nicely shaped pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the ground cumin, chilli and cinnamon. Let them sizzle for about one minute to activate their aromatic oils.

Add the chopped carrots and the crushed garlic and mix everything well. Add a bit of water, around 50 ml or so. You don’t need a lot of water; just enough to create a little steam and prevent the carrots from burning.

Close the pan and let the carrots cook for five to ten minutes, depending how you like them. I prefer mine with a bit of bite, so around seven minutes cooking is usually fine for me.

Towards the end of the cooking time, season the carrots with salt and pepper and add the chopped parsley. If the taste of the spices is not strong enough, add some more ground cumin, cinnamon and/or chillies.

Before serving, squeeze the lemons over the carrots to add some zing. I prefer my carrots without lemon juice though.