One of my favorite movie scenes is from Ratatouille when the hardened hard-to-please food critic tastes Remy the rat’s ratatouille and the scene quickly shifts to him as a young boy coming home upset and his mama putting a plate of ratatouille in front of him.  I love how it shows how a taste brought him back in time to a fond memory.  Food smells and tastes can have a strong effect upon us and seemingly transport us in time.

I love ratatouille (the vegetable medley) and first learnt how to cook it from a James Beard cookbook my mother had owned.  I used to add mushrooms though.  Maybe that’s where my youngest gets his mushroom genes from. It was these thoughts running through my head as I attempted a different way of cooking ratatouille. 

To me ratatouille is a fall dish.  A cold evening warm-you-up dish.  But, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers are in season right now.  Seemed like the perfect time to make it.  Since it’s summer, I thought grilling the vegetables made better sense.  I was planning to grill some chicken anyway.  I found this recipe I liked by Emeril Lagasse and only changed it a little to accommodate what I had in the fridge or garden.  This recipe is time consuming, so beware.

Grilled Vegetable Ratatouille

• Ÿ        2 Eggplants- peeled and cut into lengthwise ½ inch pieces.  Sprinkle with salt and let stand in bowl for 20 minutes.
• Ÿ        2 Zucchinis- cut lengthwise into ½ inch thick strips
• Ÿ       2-3  Squash- (don’t advise you to use crook neck like I had, unless you peel it as it’s skin was too tough) cut lengthwise into ½ inch thick strips
• Ÿ         2 large ripe tomatoes- cubed
• Ÿ         2 bell peppers (I used green and purple, but any color is good)
• Ÿ         Red onion- peeled and cut onion into ½ inch  rings (yellow onion would work too)
• Ÿ         Basil- large handful, chopped
• Ÿ         Parsley- handful, chopped
• Ÿ         Hungarian hot peppers- cut top and take out seeds and white ribs
• Ÿ         4 garlic cloves- peeled
• Ÿ         Olive oil
• Ÿ         1-2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• Ÿ         Sea salt & fresh ground pepper

Coat the garlic with olive oil and roast in foil boats on grill until soft. Coat each vegetable (not tomatoes) with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill, turning several times, until soft.  Peel the bell peppers (if you put over flame to blister outside then pop it in a paper bag, the skin comes off easier).  Once vegetables are cooked cut into ½ inch pieces. Crush garlic and toss with tomatoes and all the vegetables (except Hungarian hot peppers).  Add herbs.  Drizzle a little vinegar over vegetable mix and separate into two bowls. In one bowl add the chopped Hungarian hot pepper.  This way you can control the heat factor for the kids.  Mine like some hot things (wasabi, chili) but not all.  The grilled pepper sweetens and loses some of its heat when it’s grilled, but not enough for all my little ones’ palates. 

I served it with a grilled half chicken (coated in olive oil, s&p, chopped sage and rosemary).  Since the bones were still on the chicken it took at least 30 minutes.  I kind of lost track of time with refereeing kids’ squabbles and the ratatouille making.    I also made some just-picked Swiss chard about which my 3 year old declared “I love it!”.

The ratatouille was deemed “delicious” by my 8 year old.  When I asked my 6 year old if he liked it he humorously responded “red” by which I eventually understood to mean “no”.  My 3 year old refused to try it.  Since he had seconds of Swiss chard, I didn’t make him taste it.  It was still on his plate and one day, he might even say it was “delicious“ and remember the dish fondly as an adult.  Until then he will get served a small amount and soon will be made to try just one bite.  No dessert for any of them since they didn’t finish— it’s my way of ensuring the healthier foods get eaten: eventually. 

BTW, I served a soft tortilla and some ate it whole but my eldest made the chicken, brown rice and Swiss chard into a burrito; which my middle son soon followed suit.  It’s a great trick to make food fun.