Sep 23 2008
Ratatouille success
Disclaimer: This is someone else’s ratatouille in the picture. But the one I made last night looked a lot like this, but with no red peppers. I got home later than expected, so I got a late start on dinner, and finally was ladling it into bowls at 9PM. We were hungry, and also Heroes was starting. So I didn’t take pictures.
The ratatouille was a success. It was kind of time-consuming because of the need to salt the eggplant first, but if Tom had been home before I was I could have asked him to get that started for me- once it goes into the oven, it’s a 30-40 minute meal.
The flavor of the ratatouille was a complete success, which I attribute heavily to the pile of fresh herbs called for in the recipe, as well as the fact that two of the three herbs came right out of Tom’s garden and therefore had only been off the plant 20 minutes by the time they went into the pot. Tom loved this dish, and had seconds. I enjoyed the flavor, but found that I was not such a fan of the texture of the eggplant- the flesh was mushier than I expected and I don’t care for eggplant skin at all. But I suspect that if I cut the eggplant smaller next time, I’ll notice less.
We served it with a little French bread- perfect for soaking up the juices with. I was surprised at how full I was after a bowl of this. I’m sure I’ll make it again.
But in the meantime, it only ended up needing one of the two OMG GINORMOUS eggplants we have from our farm box, so it looks like I’ll get to try one of those cheese-smothered recipes this week after all. With roasted acorn squash, no doubt.
Next week we get butternut squash, and also get to pick up vouchers for jack’o'lantern pumpkins. And possibly pick more edamame. Mmm, edamame.
