Today, Friday the 29th of June 2018, marks the 11th Anniversary of Disney Pixar's masterpiece Ratatouille - a movie which is definitely every food lover's dream come true!!!
"In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*."
- Anton Ego
Yes, I could have gone with the shorter "Anyone can cook" quote of Gusteau's - but I love how Anton Ego becomes our favourite character by the end of the movie - transforming from villain to hero as he champion's Remy's career - okay, I might just be a little obsessed with this movie! (but who isn't?)
So, without further ado, here's a simple and easy recipe for Remy's ratatouille - the star of this movie!
And seriously, I don't know a single person who managed to watch this movie without going "Yum, I want to try that dish!" at least once!!!
Make sure you read all the way to the end of this post for some extra trivia snippets about our favourite rat!!!
Enjoy~
Remy's Ratatouille
serves: 6
Ingredients:
2 Red Capsicum
2 Tb Olive Oil
1 tsp Garlic (I used minced - it's just easier!)
½ cup finely diced Yellow Onion
6 large Tomatoes
4 Tb Tomato based sauce (Ketchup is fine)
2 Green Zucchini's (these need to be as evenly sized as possible)
1 Japanese Eggplant (you want to find one which is evenly sized)
1 teaspoon Minced Garlic
4 Tb Olive Oil
⅛ teaspoon Fresh Thyme Leaves
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper1 sprig Fresh Thyme
1 sprig Flat-leaf Parsley
½ a Bay Leaf
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tb Balsamic Vinegar
Method:
Preheat your oven to 140°C. Oil a deep baking dish and leave to the side.
Finely dice your capsicum and two Tomatoes, and heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-sized pot over a medium-high heat. Once the oil has heated, add in the diced onion and ½ teaspoon minced garlic, and stir until golden brown and fragrant.
Add in your capsicum and diced tomatoes, and cook for a few more minutes until everything has incorporated.Stir in half of your thyme and a pinch each of salt and pepper.
Layer this mixture along the bottom of your baking dish, keeping it as even a spread as possible.
Thinly slice the eggplant, zucchini's, and remaining tomatoes, keeping the size of each as even as possible. Line up the slices as neatly and vertically as possible on top of the sauce. You want to line up in a bit of an order - I generally go with tomato, zucchini, eggplant, zucchini, tomato, zucchini, etc.
Mix together your remaining garlic, oil and thyme, and spread over the vegetables evenly. Cover the tray with baking paper and bake for 2 hours. Then uncover and bake for an extra 20 minutes. (Recover with paper if the top starts to burn).
Carefully lift out the cooked vegetables and arrange on a plate.
As a final step (completely optional) strain the remaining sauce from the bottom of the tray and cook over a medium heat in a small pot with the vinegar until all incorporated - salt and pepper to taste and drizzle over the plated ratatouille.
Enjoy!
This recipe is so easy and tasty - I find nobody even minds that it's all just vegetables
(and kids will just love that their finally getting to try Remy's ratatouille!)
And so much attention to detail went into making this incredible movie! Did you know that:
Pet rats were kept at the studio in the hallway for more than a year so that the animators could study the movement of their fur, noses, ears, paws, and tails.
To find out how to animate the scene where the Head Chef is wet, they actually dressed someone in a chef suit, and put him in a swimming pool to see which parts of the suit stuck to his body, and which parts you could see through.
and
Marketing tie-ins proved to be problematic for the film as no food product company wanted to be associated with a rat.
Which I think is their loss - this movie was HUGE!!! (And still is - it's my dream to ride in one of the Ratatouille carts at Disneyland Paris!!!)
I hope you enjoyed this recipe and check out my other Ratatouille themed Anniversary Recipes!!!
As always - if you have any feedback or queries - feel free to contact me or find me on facebook or instagram - I'm always happy to hear from you! And please tag me in any pictures of this recipe that you may post - I'd love to see your own creations!!!
Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoyed this recipe!
Until next time!