Originating in Nice, France, ratatouille is a humble dish composed of various vegetables stirred and stewed together until they begin to melt into each other.
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00:00 Hey everybody, it's Justin here in the Delish Test Kitchen.
00:03 Rabbitouille is one of those like peasant dishes
00:05 that is actually so much more than that.
00:07 It is a mixture of incredibly fresh summer produce
00:10 like I have right here,
00:12 and everything cooks together down in a beautiful stew,
00:15 and they get melted together,
00:16 and it's so warming while also being fresh, delicious,
00:19 and incredible showcase of all these
00:22 delicious springtime, summery flavors.
00:25 And it comes together super easily.
00:26 Let's do this.
00:27 (upbeat music)
00:30 I imagine one of the first things you're thinking
00:32 when you saw this recipe or other ones like it online,
00:34 why doesn't it look like the perfect little dish
00:37 that I saw in the movie with the rat chef?
00:39 I love that movie, but that's not what this dish is,
00:41 and it's not an actual traditional rabbitouille,
00:43 believe it or not.
00:44 That is a fancier French dish called confit bieldi,
00:47 where they thinly slice a bunch of veg,
00:49 and they cook it in a baking dish under a parchment,
00:51 and it takes a lot of steps.
00:52 This is like the true, real deal, provincial,
00:56 French, easy to make summer dish
00:58 that is gonna become a staple in your home.
01:00 As long as you have a bunch of things from the garden,
01:02 you're gonna throw it in there,
01:03 and it's going to be delicious.
01:04 We're gonna start by breaking down our veg,
01:06 and the first thing we're gonna tackle is eggplant.
01:08 You can see that these aren't the huge,
01:10 humongous Italian eggplants that you usually see.
01:13 Those tend to end up being the most bitter
01:15 and not as delicious.
01:16 The smaller they are,
01:17 the more tender, and sweet, and nice they are.
01:20 Eggplant retains a ton of moisture
01:22 that comes out during cooking,
01:24 and can make anything that you cook with it
01:26 very watery, and kind of bitter, and gross.
01:29 So the best way to combat that
01:31 is to salt it before adding it.
01:33 So we're going to dice this up into half-inch cubes,
01:37 then get it into a colander with a bunch of salt,
01:39 toss everything nicely,
01:40 and then we're gonna let it sit for 30 minutes.
01:43 You're gonna see that some of the water
01:44 is gonna drain out into a bowl,
01:46 which you can then toss,
01:48 and then we can actually use the eggplant
01:49 so it doesn't leach out all that moisture
01:51 while we're cooking.
01:52 Next, we have onions and bell pepper.
01:54 You can use whatever color you want.
01:55 I like using the red.
01:57 It's sweet, delicious, adds a little bit more flavor.
01:59 You're gonna wanna remove the seeds
02:00 and the ribs from the pepper,
02:01 and then you should be able to cut these up
02:03 kind of roughly, just like the onions.
02:05 Give them a nice chop.
02:06 Honestly, my favorite part of this dish,
02:10 and one of my favorite things to eat in the summer,
02:12 is summer squash or zucchini.
02:14 You can get the green or the yellow.
02:15 That adds a really nice color here.
02:17 They kind of taste the same.
02:18 I sort of use them interchangeably,
02:20 so I wouldn't stress too much
02:21 if you only have one or the other.
02:23 We're gonna cut these in half
02:24 and get beautiful little half moons as well.
02:27 Finally, you're gonna take a beefsteak tomato
02:31 and you're gonna cut this probably the finest of everything
02:33 'cause this is gonna melt into the sauce
02:35 and kind of make a tomato sauce for the stew.
02:37 What would a fresh summer stew be
02:40 without a ton of fresh herb action?
02:43 We're gonna have thyme that we're gonna take off the stalk
02:44 and chop up, as well as rosemary.
02:47 Treat the same way.
02:48 And then we're gonna get some basil.
02:50 We're gonna roll it up into a little roll
02:52 and make a chiffonade, just a fancy word for ribbon.
02:55 And then I promise,
02:56 this has been the most work you're gonna do all day.
02:58 All of that chopping is really just the majority of it.
03:00 Now we get to make the stew.
03:01 Now we could be lazy and just throw everything
03:03 we just chopped right into this pot and cook it up,
03:05 but it's not gonna be as good.
03:08 That would still taste delicious,
03:09 especially if it's with good produce,
03:11 but we wanna like build layers of flavor and texture.
03:14 And weirdly enough, the best way to do that in this case
03:17 is to cook all the veg with veg that cooks in a similar way.
03:20 So we're gonna do the onions and the bell pepper
03:22 at the same time, take that out.
03:23 Then the zucchini, take that out.
03:25 And then the eggplant.
03:26 A lot of these things have a lot of moisture,
03:28 and if we were to put them in all at once,
03:30 all of them are gonna get too crowded
03:31 and it's gonna create like a soupy mess.
03:33 Now, since we're adding things in smaller batches,
03:35 things can get browned, get a little bit of caramelization,
03:38 help build more flavor,
03:39 and then we can bring it all together
03:41 into a beautiful tomato saucy goodness.
03:43 It takes maybe an extra 10 to 15 minutes.
03:46 I swear to God, definitely worth it.
03:48 So like any good European dish,
03:50 we're gonna start with a good glug of olive oil.
03:53 We're gonna add in our onions and our garlic,
03:55 and those are gonna cook for like five to six minutes,
03:57 just until translucent.
03:59 Then we're gonna add in our bell pepper.
04:01 That just needs to cook until like soften
04:02 and they're not just still crispy, about six minutes.
04:05 We don't want it to be mushy.
04:06 We're just looking for caramelization, color,
04:08 and a little bit of forming of flavor.
04:10 Then we're gonna lose that out of the pan.
04:13 Then we're gonna go in with a little bit more olive oil,
04:15 the zucchini, the rosemary, a little bit more garlic,
04:19 and some salt and pepper.
04:20 We're gonna cook that off until the zucchini is golden.
04:24 Then we're gonna remove that to the same bowl
04:25 where the onions and bell peppers are.
04:26 Now we're gonna go into the pot with our eggplant
04:29 that has been patted dry,
04:30 along with the thyme,
04:34 two cloves worth of chopped garlic, salt and pepper again.
04:38 It's really key that we're seasoning every step of the way.
04:40 We're adding salt and pepper each step
04:42 to make sure that everything is well-seasoned.
04:44 I'm gonna sound like I'm repeating myself,
04:45 but that's because I am.
04:46 We're gonna cook until it's golden brown,
04:48 starting to get translucent,
04:49 but not breaking down, six to eight minutes.
04:51 With the zucchini, and honestly, all of the vegetables,
04:54 you wanna do your best to not disturb them too much.
04:57 I think oftentimes when you're sauteing something,
04:59 the urge is to move it all around.
05:01 That is the antithesis of what we're looking for,
05:03 which is like browning and caramelization.
05:05 So like you can toss every like couple of minutes,
05:09 but truly for like two to three minutes,
05:11 you should just be letting this sit,
05:12 form some color and some fond, stir it around,
05:15 let it sit again.
05:16 You understand, it's a cycle,
05:18 just like this whole thing is a cycle,
05:19 but I promise it's gonna make really delicious food.
05:22 Remove that from the pan, a little bit more olive oil.
05:25 Now we're gonna go in with our chopped tomatoes,
05:27 a little bit of sugar,
05:28 and the remaining garlic, salt and pepper.
05:30 And we're cooking this tomato until it's broken down.
05:32 And this, we actually wanna create
05:34 like a saucy, stewy texture
05:36 that should take six to eight minutes.
05:38 So once your tomato is nice and cooked down,
05:41 you're gonna add in that canned tomato,
05:43 crushed tomatoes in this case.
05:45 This is now the moment
05:45 where we're building everything back together.
05:47 We're gonna add in our basil, all of our reserved veg,
05:51 and we're gonna let this cook for like eight to 10 minutes.
05:53 We don't wanna take this for 30, 40 minutes,
05:55 even though you might think
05:57 that that's building up a ton of flavor,
05:58 it's actually just gonna make things watery
06:00 and messy and gloopy.
06:01 This will keep all the veg intact
06:03 while still moving these around.
06:04 That's why we cooked everything separately.
06:06 Throughout this cooking process,
06:08 a bunch of fond is probably gonna form
06:09 at the bottom of the pan.
06:10 That's all really good stuff
06:12 that's just gonna add to the stew.
06:13 So when you add in your chopped tomatoes,
06:15 you're gonna be adding in a decent amount of moisture.
06:16 Just go in with a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom,
06:18 and you'll get some of that amazingness into your stew.
06:21 (upbeat music)
06:24 I feel like if I showed this plate to my doctor,
06:32 they'd be so happy with me
06:34 for all the veg that I'm eating in just one little bite.
06:37 (upbeat music)
06:40 My favorite ways to serve this is, first of all,
06:43 with some big crusty bread just cracked over it.
06:46 Some of the crumbs get in it.
06:47 Scoop some up with it.
06:48 So yummy.
06:49 I'm super happy with this.
06:50 It's pretty inexpensive,
06:51 especially if you're growing your own produce
06:52 or going to the farmer's market
06:54 and making a deal with the local farmer.
06:56 And I love that it's vegan.
06:58 That's a pretty big selling point nowadays.
07:00 But regardless, if you want more recipes
07:02 that utilize fresh summer produce,
07:04 stick around here on delish.com.
07:06 (upbeat music)
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