Remy's Ratatouille

Apparently the dish the Remy makes in the Disney movie Ratatouille is not a traditional ratatouille.  But this awesome hack of the dish he does make got rave reviews in my house tonight (well... to be honest, four gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up and the littlest pair of thumbs in our household gave it two teary-eyed thumbs down but that's a whole other blog in and of itself...).  My son took THIRDS and I got a happy groan out of my husband on the first bite and AGAIN on the second bite!  I made extra of this so we could have it again another night, yeah... that's not gonna to happen.  It's pretty much gone!

Plus it's a very pretty and colorful dish, and it has goat cheese.  Who doesn't like goat cheese??

I was able to use three red peppers, two yellow squash, and a small onion from my bountiful basket in this recipe!


Remy's Ratatouille
What you Need:
-2 10" oven-safe baking dishes
-parchment paper
-EVOO cooking spray
-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
-2 cups brown rice
-1 Tablespoon butter
-1/2 medium onion, diced
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1 14oz can diced tomatoes
-basil,  parsley, and thyme to taste (again, I go nuts on the basil and easy on the parsley and thyme)
-1 egg plant (or 2 Italian Eggplants)
-2 zucchini
-2 yellow squash
-3 long, skinny-ish red bell peppers
-1/4 cup EVOO
-1 teaspoon thyme
-1 teaspoon dill weed
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
-AT LEAST 6oz soft goat cheese (and I would say "optional" here to make it vegan-friendly, but it's the contrast of the cheese with the other flavors that makes this dish so phenomenal!)
Instructions:
1. Set a piece of parchment paper on top of each baking dish and use a pencil to trace around the lip of the dish and cut the circle just inside the line so it'll fit nicely over the top of your ratatouille and set aside.
2. Combine the stock and rice in a rice cooker and start it (If using a saute pan, melt an additional 2 Tablespoon of butter in pan on a medium/high heat, add rice and stir for a few minutes and then add the stock.  Cover and simmer on medium/low for 30-40 minutes or until most of the water has been absorbed.  I also recommend moving this step to while the ratatouille is in the oven if you decide to prepare it this way)
3. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and saute onion on medium/high heat.  When tender, add garlic and stir.  Add tomatoes, basil. parsley, and thyme and stir.  Reduce heat and allow to stew and reduce while you prepare the olive oil and cut vegetables
4. Combine olive oil, thyme, dill weed, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and set aside
5. Trim the ends off eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, and red peppers.  Carefully remove the core from the inside of the red peppers, leaving the tube intact.
6. Thinly slice the yellow squash, zucchini, and red peppers (and if you got Italian eggplants, those as well) into thin rounds, about 1/16th of an inch.  If you have a normal eggplant, cut the narrow top into rounds just like the other vegetables. Then quarter the thick part of it length-wise and cut the quarters into 1/16th inch slices.
7. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
8. Coat 10" dishes with cooking spray, pour 1/2 the tomato mixture into the bottom of each dish, and arrange slices of vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the dish, overlapping so just a small amount of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables.
9. Using a basting brush, brush half of the olive oil mixture onto the top of the vegetables in each dish. Cover with parchment rounds and bake for 45 minutes
10. Serve over rice with a dab of goat cheese on top!


Hope you enjoy this scrumptious dish!  I know we did!