RatatouilleRatatouille
Eggplant, courgette, onion and tomato, each softened one at a time in olive oil until it is just soft, then layered in a deep pan and braised down together until the flavours have blended into a single, deep sauce. The method is the recipe: every vegetable wants a different amount of time, and the dish that cooks them all in one go ends up as a mush.
Technique notes
A proper ratatouille is a braise built out of separate, slow soft sautés, and the reason each vegetable is cooked on its own is its clock: the eggplant takes ten minutes to go soft, the courgette about five, the onion somewhere in between, and the tomato needs fifteen to become a sauce. Cooked in one pan at the same moment, the fast ones are a pulp before the slow one is even starting, and the plate reads as a mush. Give each one its own time, then layer them into the sauce and braise them together: that final braise is where the sauce gets into everything, and is where the dish becomes a single plate rather than five sides of one plate. Cut everything to the same size: even pieces cook evenly, and uneven ones are what turn the dish into a mush in the first place.
Equipment
- A heavy, wide frying pan, for the separate soft sautés
- A deep, ovenproof pan or casserole, with a lid, for the braise
- A wide wooden spoon, for stirring
Ingredients
- 1 large aubergine, cut into 2 cm (¾-inch) cubes
- 2 medium courgettes, cut into 2 cm (¾-inch) dice
- 1 large onion, cut into 1 cm (½-inch) dice
- 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped, or 400 g chopped plum tomatoes from a tin — the ripe ones are better; the tin is the reliable fallback
- 5 tbsp (75 ml) good olive oil, split over the sautés
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme and oregano, or herbes de Provence, for the braise
- 1 tsp fine salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ tsp sugar, if the tomatoes are sharp
Method
- Soft the onion first. Into the heavy pan, over a medium heat, put 1 tbsp of the oil and the diced onion, and let it cook, stirring now and again, for about 8–10 min, until it is soft and just turning pale gold at one edge — soft, not burnt. Pull it out and set it aside on a plate.
- Soft the aubergine, on its own. Wipe the pan dry, put in another 1 tbsp of the oil, and cook the aubergine dice for about 10–12 min, turning now and again, until it is soft throughout and just lightly golden. The aubergine is the sponge of the dish: it drinks the oil as it goes, so do not skimp, and pull it out and set it aside before the courgette.
- Soft the courgette. Once the pan is clear, put in another 1 tbsp of the oil and cook the courgette dice for about 4–5 min, until they are just soft and still hold their shape. Set them aside.
- Make the tomato sauce, in the same pan. Put in the last of the oil and the garlic, and let it sizzle for 30 sec, and then add the chopped tomato, the salt, and a little sugar if the tomato is sharp. Let it cook for about 15 min, without the lid, until it is down to a thick, deep-red sauce that leaves a mark on the side of the pan.
- Layer, and braise it down. Into the deep casserole, put a ladle of the tomato sauce on the base, then the aubergine, the onion, and the courgette, and pour the rest of the sauce over the top. Stir through the herbs. Cover it, and put it in a 160°C / 320°F oven for about 40 min — or braise on the stove, under the lid, on a gentle simmer, for the same time — until the liquid is reduced to a thick sauce and the vegetable is soft but will still be picked up whole on a spoon.
- Rest, season, serve. Let it sit for about 10 min, and give it the final salt. A ratatouille is better the next day — the first sitting is enough for the table, and the kept portion is the one that tasted properly like itself.
Common failures
- It is a mush, and you cannot tell one vegetable from another. The pieces were cut uneven, or the vegetables were cooked all in one pan at once. Keep the dice even, cook each vegetable for its own time, and shorten the final braise if it turns out wetter than you want.
- The pan is a puddle, and the sauce will not set. The tomato was not reduced before it went into the oven, and the courgette has added its water on top of it. Give the sauce its full fifteen minutes, and braise a little longer if the layer is still wet when it comes out.
- It tastes flat, like boiled vegetables in oil. There was not enough oil for the sautés, or the braise ended before the vegetable had started absorbing the sauce. Use the full five tablespoons of oil across the three sautés, and give the braise its full 40 min.
- The tomato is a sour edge on the plate. The tomato was not ripe, and has not cooked long enough to lose its acid. Reduce the sauce longer, and let the little sugar do its work as the braise goes on.
Variations & substitutions
- With a potato layer. Stir 200 g of small-diced potato under the layer in step 5 — the potato takes up the sauce, and turns the ratatouille from a side into a full plate. This is the heavier, country version of the same pan of vegetables.
- Without the aubergine. Replace the aubergine with a third courgette, and let it take the same sauté. The dish loses the oily, dark note, and keeps everything else.
- As a filling. Let the braise go a little longer until the sauce is thick, and use the reduced sauce to bake into a frittata, or spread it on a thick piece of bread with an egg fried on top — the vegetable holds the sauce, and the sauce is what makes the plate one plate.
What to serve with it
A ratatouille goes with a simple protein — a piece of chicken, a fillet of fish — or a bowl of rice to catch the sauce. The classic single thing for it is an egg fried on top: the same idea as the huevos rancheros, only the bed is vegetables rather than tortilla. And when the plate is vegetable only, the thing next to it is a simple flan — the sweet that closes the table.
More
Back to French · Techniques (braising, pan heat, knife skills)