Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ratty Touie

Not being a lover of eggplant, still I love the rest of ratatouille, so sometimes I fudge it a little and make what I call Ratty Touie, a bastardized version of the real thing. The ingredients change a little each time - there's not a lot you can do to ruin Ratty Touie!

This time, I got a little creative, mostly because I didn't have all the ingredients in the house but had some other stuff that sounded fun and Mediterranean-ish - so, what the heck?

I sliced fairly thinly zucchinis, pattypan squash, fresh tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts, the kind that come in a squat bottle, and
peeled the papery skins off some of my slow-roasted tomato* halves.

I quartered some large shallots through the root end and minced two big cloves of garlic. After sauteeing the shallots and garlic in a little olive oil, I skimmed the bottom of a deep, lidded casserole with more olive oil, then layered the veggies in it one by one, alternating the shallot-garlic mixture with the other layers and sprinkling each layer with herbes de Provence. When I got to the top layer, I poured about half the vinaigrette from the jar of artichoke hearts over the whole thing, put on the lid and baked it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour - you'll know when it is ready as the whole house smells of the perfume.

All the veggies relaxed against each other and mingled like guests at a good party where everyone knows everyone else and no one is out to dominate, except perhaps those slow-roasted tomatoes - they are such showoffs! Sweetly oniony and softly savory, it was one of the best things I've made this summer, even if it is a little ratty.

*If you don't have slow-roasted tomatoes on hand, I think sun-dried ones might work but I'd layer them toward the bottom of the casserole where the juices from the other veggies would moisten them.

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5 Comments:

Blogger cookiecrumb said...

Very summer, tres ete.
It looks good.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Cookiecrumb, It looks like something you two would make.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008  
Blogger Ms Brown Mouse said...

I can't hear the word Ratatouille, without remembering that classic Fawlty Towers episode where Manuel thought Basil the Rat had been put in the Ratatouille.

Thursday, August 28, 2008  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Morgan, I missed that one - rats!

Thursday, August 28, 2008  
Blogger Katie Zeller said...

I'm not a big eggplant person myself... although I eat it in ratatouille. This sounds delicious - and I would probably make it more often! Especially if I actually had a garden...

Saturday, September 06, 2008  

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