{"id":499,"date":"2019-07-12T23:50:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T23:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/?p=499"},"modified":"2019-07-12T23:50:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T23:50:24","slug":"ratatouille-any-which-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/2019\/07\/12\/ratatouille-any-which-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Ratatouille any which way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve talked about my love of <a href=\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/2018\/10\/19\/anyone-can-cook-ratatouille\/\">Ratatouille<\/a> before, both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0382932\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\">movie<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/wcfcourier.com\/news\/opinion\/blogs\/haute_dish\/ratatouille-tian-perfect-summer-meal\/article_f0e04cc0-813b-584e-8a4e-69f8da306b30.html\">food<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/wcfcourier.com\/news\/opinion\/blogs\/haute_dish\/patience-is-rewarded-with-delicious-ratatouille-casserole\/article_17579136-4952-5e3d-a796-26576a113199.html\">item<\/a>. The movie has the message of \u201cAnyone can cook,\u201d which is to say not everyone can do it but that one\u2019s station in life &#8212; even as a rat &#8212; can\u2019t dictate whether one is a great chef.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_488\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-488\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-488 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165306-300x259.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165306-300x259.jpg 300w, http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165306-768x663.jpg 768w, http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165306-1024x884.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165306.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-488\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ratatouille ingredients.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A great chef I am not but I take comfort in that, and many other, life lessons offered by the Pixar classic.<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve come to love the French dish almost as much as the move, I\u2019ve also come to realize it\u2019s an appropriate recipe to highlight the movie\u2019s message and theme. The dish is a humble stew that also can be made to be served at the top restaurant in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>If anyone can can cook, ratatouille shows that simple ingredients can make for an impressive meal no matter which way you make it.<\/p>\n<p>I found last year that I loved making this traditional stew-like dish as a tian on a sheet pan. But in making it in my Dutch oven this year, I was reminded that it also works really well in its stew-ish form. While it mirrors a hearty stew, it is still exclusively vegetables and herbs and spices, with a little bit of (OK, a lot of) olive oil, which makes it light even on a summer night. Also, it doesn\u2019t need to cook for hours upon hours. It\u2019s a half hour or so in front of a stove top, not bad in the air-conditioned house.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s practically perfect, especially for the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bastille_Day\">Bastille Day<\/a>!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_489\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-489\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-489\" src=\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165422-300x241.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165422-300x241.jpg 300w, http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165422-768x617.jpg 768w, http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165422-1024x822.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/20190624_165422.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-489\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">So healthy and yet so scrumptious.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here\u2019s what I did:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>5+ T. olive oil<\/li>\n<li>2 medium onions, chopped<\/li>\n<li>7 garlic cloves, chopped<\/li>\n<li>1 large eggplant (1 1\/2 to 2 medium), chopped<\/li>\n<li>2 medium zucchinis, chopped<\/li>\n<li>2 medium summer squash, chopped<\/li>\n<li>1 red bell pepper, chopped<\/li>\n<li>Salt, to taste<\/li>\n<li>1 T. thyme (the recipes often recommended whole sprigs to be removed; I just used dried)<\/li>\n<li>2 T. dried basil\u00a0 (I\u2019d prefer fresh but I had some dried on hand)<\/li>\n<li>1 T. dried oregano<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd T. red pepper flakes (optional)<\/li>\n<li>4 to 5 medium tomatoes, chopped<\/li>\n<li>3 T. tomato paste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Directions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Add about 2 T. of oil to a large Dutch oven on medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until beginning to turn translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add another about 2 T. of oil and the eggplant. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 to 10 minutes, until beginning to soften. Add another about 2 T. of oil, the zucchini, summer squash, and bell pepper. Cook, continuing to stir occasionally, for another 5 to 10 minutes until the zucchini and squash are mostly cooked through. Add the tomatoes, herbs and spices, and tomato paste, and cook for another 5 minutes, covered, until all the vegetables are cooked through and the mixture looks stew-ish.<\/p>\n<p>Let cool slightly (it stays hot for awhile), and enjoy with some fancy bread!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve talked about my love of Ratatouille before, both the movie and the food item. The movie has the message of \u201cAnyone can cook,\u201d which is to say not everyone can do it but that one\u2019s station in life &#8212; even as a rat &#8212; can\u2019t dictate whether one is a great chef. A great &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/2019\/07\/12\/ratatouille-any-which-way\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ratatouille any which way&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,8,11,17],"tags":[143,81,181,183,65],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}