How to cook ratatouille

For starters - a little history. Initially ratatouille was prepared by poor peasants from Provence. It was typical summer dish, because for the preparation of ratatouille fresh seasonal vegetables were taken - tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, garlic, onions. Now eggplant is added to ratatouille.

But the main secret that distinguishes Ratatouille fromother similar vegetable dishes (Hungarian lecho, Italian caponata, Spanish pisto), are used spices. For the preparation of ratatouille it is customary to use A mixture of spices, known as "Provencal herbs". It includes basil, rosemary, thyme, peppermint, sage, marjoram, oregano, garden savory.

But if you decide to master preparation ratatuya at home, you can replace the Provençal herbs and other spices - after all, your ratatouille will not be evaluated by a severe culinary critic. The main thing is that you yourself like it.

How to cook ratatouille: 1 version

Here is one of the simplest recipes ratatuya, with it you can begin mastering the preparation of the dish. We will need these products:

• 
  2-3 tomatoes
• 
  2 onions
• 
  2 Bulgarian peppers
• 
  1-2 young zucchini
• 
  1 eggplant
• 
  2 cloves of garlic
• 
  parsley and dill greens
• 
  cooking oil for frying
• 
  freshly ground black pepper, salt

Thoroughly wash my vegetables and greens. Eggplant and zucchini are cut into large cubes (young squash should not be peeled, but if you could find only old ones, they need to be cleaned of seeds and peel). Pepper is cleaned of seeds and also cut into large cubes.

Tomatoes are peeled (in order to beit is easier to do this, you need to slightly cut the cuticle criss-crosswise and for a half-minute or two to dip the tomatoes into boiling water). The flesh of tomatoes is cut into large pieces. Onions and garlic are cleaned and crushed, greens also need to be finely chopped.

We heat the oil in a frying pan and within 2-3minutes fry onions and half garlic. Add the eggplant and fry for another 3 minutes, then add the pepper, after another 2 minutes - zucchini. Stir, fry 2-3 minutes, add tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. If desired, you can also add dried rosemary and thyme.

Covering with a lid, stew for 20-25 minutes onlow heat. Then turn off the fire, add greens and the second half of garlic, cover with a lid and leave for 10 minutes. When ratatouille is infused, we serve it to the table.

How to Cook Ratatouille: Option 2

This recipe ratatuya is more like a recipe from a cartoon, because vegetables are cut into circles and nicely stacked. To prepare this variant ratatouy take:

• 
  zucchini - 0,5 kg
• 
  eggplant - 0,5 kg
• 
  tomatoes - 0,5 kg

• 
  tomatoes - 350 g
• 
  Bulgarian pepper - 350 g
• 
  onions - 200 g
• 
  cooking oil for frying
• 
  salt

• 
  vegetable oil - 5 tbsp. l.
• 
  garlic - 2-3 cloves
• 
  greens, salt, pepper

The washed pepper is baked in the oven at a temperature of180 degrees about half an hour (until the skin does not darken). After wrapping the pepper in a plastic bag, let it cool down, then peel off the skin and seeds, cut the pulp into cubes. Peel the onions and garlic, finely chop. Peeled tomatoes are cut into cubes.

Fry the onion in vegetable oil, addpepper and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt and cook for 5-7 minutes (until the sauce thickens). We transfer it to a blender, crush it. We put the finished sauce in an even layer in the form in which we will prepare ratatouille.

Cut the vegetables into thin slices (eggplantit is necessary to salt, leave for half an hour, so that bitterness is gone, and then rinse in cold water and dry). Beautifully spread the vegetables in a form, alternating circles of eggplants, tomatoes and zucchini.

Finely chop the greens, mix with butter and garlic, salt and pepper to taste. We pour the dressing. Cover the form with foil and bake in the oven, heated to 180 degrees, until ready (about an hour).

Bon Appetit!