Ratatouille

My mother wasn’t a very good cook. She had many skills-preparing palatable food was not one of them. A dish she frequently subjected us to was her ratatouille, except that it wasn’t ratatouille at all, but courgettes stewed to a slimy pulp in V-8 juice and tossed with some dried onion. Early on, I developed (not surprisingly) an intense dislike for summer squash.

The ratatouille I made today is quite different. Well sure, I didn’t cook it in V-8 juice-that’s the first obvious departure from my mother’s culinary repertoire No one had to gag it down either. The recipe comes from Mastering The Art Of French Cooking. I’m not going to reproduce it here as the book is widely available and I’m not sure what the copyright situation is. If you’re dying to make it and cannot lay your hands upon a copy, I can email you this recipe by request.

The recipe calls for green peppers in addition to the tomatoes, eggplant, onions and courgettes. I omitted the peppers as I find green peppers revolting. Believe me-you won’t miss them. Rich with olive oil, the dish goes well with rice or crusty bread. I found it interesting that there aren’t any spices save for salt, pepper and fresh parsley. The olive oil and onion are relied heavily upon in creating the pleasant flavours in the dish-and they are pleasant

Can be eaten hot or cold..