#LaVieBastide - Ratatouille Dressed in Zucchini, in the kitchen with Jules & Green
Based in the lush and gifted terroir of Aix-en-Provence, food & wellness blogger Jules & Green is carving her own path in French cuisine with a healthy approach - making delicious vegetarian (and vegan) recipes out of fresh local ingredients.
"Ratatouille is a dish that is a true emblem of Provence, so I chose this recipe to share with Bastide," she explains. "Many variations of this recipe exist, and the beauty of it is that they are all very easy to prepare. I find most of these vegetables in my vegetable garden. I slice them very thinly which reduces the cooking time and brings a soft texture to them. My little secret is to add a little bit of ginger and a few leaves of freshly cut basil once it is cooked." Read on to learn this traditional recipe - easy to perfect and very easy on the eyes thanks to the naturally vivid fruits and vegetables.
Ingredients:
1 pepper
1 eggplant
1 clove of garlic
1 red onion
1 branch of fresh basil
Salt & pepper
1 small piece of ginger
For the presentation:
1 squash
1 zucchini
Prepare the ratatouille:
Dice up vegetables into small pieces. Feel free to use a chopper/blender if you'd like for the onion, garlic, zucchini, pepper and eggplant - just make sure you are chopping them all separately.
In a big pot, cook the ingredients in the following order with 5 minutes interval between each one: the onion and the garlic, then add the pepper, the eggplant, the zucchini and finally the tomatoes. After cooking for 25 minutes total, remove the mixture from heat and and add freshly basil leaves, finely chopped.
To prepare the outer wrap, use a mandoline to slice zucchini and squash into thin slices, lengthwise. Quickly blanch them in boiling water for 3 minutes. Strain, and cool them down in ice cold water to maintain texture.
Assembly:
In a small bowl, lay down the slices of zucchini and squash, alternating colors and making sure each slice overlaps one another, eventually cover the entire bowl. Be sure to allow the slices to dangle over the edge of the bowl.
Scoop into the zucchini lined bowl a generous amount of ratatouille (strain the ratatouille first if it has too much water), then finally add a thin layer of rice.
Complete the "wrap" with the extra length of the squash slices, again maintaining the overlapping pattern.
Tip over the bowl delicately onto a plate and add fig wedges for decoration.
Bon appetit!
