Probably one of the greatest tributes to the culinary arts in recent memory, the film Ratatouille is the catalyst which begins my culinary adventure. Surprisingly, when talking with some of my friends about my plans for the first movie-inspired dish, more than a few learned that ratatouille was more than a movie. Ratatouille is a traditional French recipe originally hailing from Nice. For you French speakers out there, you will recognize the French verb touiller in the name. For the non-French speaking population, this means "to toss food".

Like many traditional foods such as borshct, there are a myriad of ways to cook ratatouille. It can be sauteed, baked, or boiled. The basic concept lies in combining a lot of vegetables together. The particular recipe which I used called to make ratatouille as a type of baked casserole with a tomato and garlic sauce. The recipe can be found at the following website:

www.saveur.com/gallery/Great-Recipes-From-Famous-Movies.   This recipe was ridiculously easy and was extremely tasty. Even reluctant vegetable haters who tried it were fans. Most of the work consisted in slicing the vegetables.

The adventure began at the grocery store in the produce section. This was the first time in my life where I have purchased a eggplant and I had no idea if there were any age old secrets on how to choose the right one. Luckily, having only one left at the store made this a simpler decision. I do think I have found a secret though. Pick an eggplant most resembling a human face.

Do you see it?

 

Coming home with the loot, I then preceded to chop away. My favorite part was hollowing the red pepper. It felt like every Halloween of my life.

 

A new Halloween tradition?

 

I then placed all the slices in a baking dish over a tomato based sauce. After 50 or so minutes in the oven, I was in traditional French provincial heaven.

Pre-baked

 

Baked

 

Voila! No master computer animated rat chef required! (though still welcome)

 

 

My first recipe turned out to be a delicious success. Coming up this next week: homemade doughnuts inspired by the doughnut king himself, Homer Simpson. Mmmm........doughnuts.