Ratatouille is a French dish. Although it is widely used in countries such as Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. The main ingredient is eggplant. It is combined in every country with different products. It can be tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cheese, etc.
In this article, we will consider how eggplant ratatouille is combined and prepared with other products. Such a salad can be served not only on weekdays, but also on holidays. It can be consumed both cold and hot.
Eggplant and zucchini ratatouille
For its preparation, it is advisable to buy exclusively fresh vegetables. Then the salad will be not only tasty, but also beautiful. In the recipe, the ingredients are offered in three servings.
Take two large eggplants, remove their tails and wash well under running water. Sometimes vegetables are peeled. Cut them into thin rings, put in a bowl and salt. Now put eggplants for 20 minutes, let bitterness drain.
Take 2 medium zucchini or zucchini. Treat them like eggplant. Cut into thin circles. Then cook 4 tomatoes. Cut them too. If the tomatoes are large, then you can cut into half rings.
Set the vegetables aside and cook the tomato sauce. It will be needed in the future.
Sauce making
Take one large onion and one bell pepper. Peel and cut into small cubes. From tomatoes, prepare 300 g of tomato juice.
Put the prepared onion in a hot pan, sauté for no more than 1 minute (until soft). Add the bell pepper there. Fry for five minutes, stirring constantly. Add sugar and ground pepper. As a rule, they are put to taste, and not by prescription. It should be sweet and sour sauce. And continue to fry for 10 minutes. To add flavor and spice, add a little basil and parsley. But greens are optional.
We combine products and prepare ratatouille
Vegetables that you cut into circles - zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes - put into the pan in turn. You need to stack in a circle. First - eggplant, then - zucchini and tomato. When you have filled the entire container, fill the vegetables with tomato sauce.
Grate the garlic on a fine grater, cut the greens, combine with olive oil (20 ml). Mix this mixture well and pour into a container for vegetables. Now put the ratatouille on a slow fire. The dish is ready when the eggplant and zucchini have become soft.
Cooking ratatouille in the oven
This recipe is practically no different from the previous one. The only difference is that according to the first recipe, the dish was cooked on the stove, and now we are talking about how to cook the eggplant ratatouille in the oven.
If you have already chopped all the ingredients and cooked the tomato sauce, then you can bake the dish. Place vegetables in a deep frying pan without a handle or a baking sheet. Pour sauce over them, sprinkle with garlic, chopped herbs and pour olive oil on top.
Now you need to cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and you can put it in the oven 180 degrees. Bake for 1 hour. When the time is up, turn off the oven and let the vegetables infuse for another 10 minutes. Eggplant and zucchini ratatouille ready to eat.
Add cheese
Agree, not everyone likes zucchini. Therefore, ratatouille can be safely prepared without them. First you need to make the sauce. To do this, cut into small cubes one large onion and fry it in a pan until soft and transparent.
Grind bell pepper (1 pc.) And 4 tomatoes with a meat grinder or blender. Add juice to the onion. Fry for three minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, add spicy herbs and stew the sauce for another 5 minutes.
Take 2 eggplants, cut them into rings. Salt, let bitterness go away with the juice. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes into circles. Cut the cheese into rectangles or squares to fit the vegetables. You can just rub it and put it on top.
Now you can put the dish in a baking dish. First put the eggplant ring, then the tomato, then the cheese. And again in a circle until all the ingredients are over. Pour them in tomato sauce. You can add garlic for a brighter flavor, and hot pepper for pungency.
While spreading vegetables, you can turn on the oven. Cover the baking dish with parchment paper. Now send it to the oven for 50 minutes. Eggplant, cheese and tomato ratatouille is ready. Let it infuse for an hour and serve.
Lazy Ratatouille
This dish cooks faster than the previous ones. Take two large eggplants, wash them, remove the tails and cut them into strips. They should not be too thin so that they do not fall apart during cooking. Salt the strips and leave for 20 minutes to get bitterness.
In the meantime, chop two bell peppers. They should also be stripes. Grate one large carrot on a grater, cut onions (1 pc.) Into small cubes, and 4 tomatoes into thin slices.
Now fry the onion until it is soft. Do not bring to a golden crust. Then add the carrots. Fry and stir constantly. When the carrots are soft, add pepper and eggplant. While the vegetables are fried, prepare the gravy.
From tomatoes, make 200 g of tomato juice. In the same container, add grated garlic and herbs to taste. It can be parsley and basil. Add some red and black ground pepper there. Shuffle.
When the eggplants are fried, put the tomatoes in a frying pan in circles. Stir the vegetables and let it boil for 5 minutes. Then pour the cooked gravy with garlic, pepper and herbs into the pan. Cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Remember to stir occasionally. When the vegetables are cooked, they should be infused under the lid for about 30 minutes. Now the lazy eggplant ratatouille is ready. It can be served to the table both hot and cold.
French ratatouille
For cooking, cut eggplant and tomatoes into thin slices, and pepper and onion into small cubes. Fry the onion until golden brown. Then put pepper in the same pan. Fry everything well, and then you can add the tomatoes. Cover, let the vegetables stew.
In the meantime, prepare the gravy. In 1 tbsp. water add 3 tbsp. l tomato paste. The juice turned out. Pour it into a baking dish. Then in the same container you need to finely chop 3 cloves of garlic, add a few twigs of basil and half finely chopped hot pepper. Mix juice, salt, pepper to taste.
Now put the vegetables in circles in a circle in a baking dish, where we already have gravy.
Sprinkle fried vegetables over the entire surface . This is onion and pepper. Then, with a dense layer, we fill up with cheese, cover the form with parchment paper and send it to the oven for 1 hour.
You must admit that this recipe for eggplant ratatouille is very simple and accessible to every housewife. Now you can surprise your household or guests with a new refined taste.
Tips
As you can see, a dish of eggplant (ratatouille) is prepared very simply. Although there are recipes that take a lot of time. Experienced chefs know several secrets to make the dish more fragrant and tasty.
No wonder they say that before cooking eggplant must be salted. After all, then the main bitterness goes away, and the dish is much more tender. To make bitterness faster, it is recommended to lower eggplants into boiled salted water. When the color of the water turns brown, vegetables can be taken out.
Remember that the taste and quality of the dish depend on the slices. If the circles are too thin, then the vegetables will fall apart and get an unpresentable look. Strongly thick circles can sometimes be raw, which will also ruin the dish. Therefore, try to cut the vegetables in medium strips or circles.
The dish will be more saturated, beautiful and fragrant if the sauce is made from tomatoes and tomato paste 1: 1. This will give the dish brightness and a special smell. Even if you do not like garlic, you can add 1 clove. Its taste is not felt in the dish, but it will give an unforgettable aroma.
Cheese gives the dish piquancy, so it is advisable to add it. Optionally cut to size vegetables. You can grate 200 g on a fine grater and sprinkle the dish. Sometimes hard cheese is replaced with cream cheese.
Conclusion
In the article, we examined several recipes for such an original and exquisite dish as ratatouille. Also learned some secrets and cooking tips. As it turned out, such a dish is prepared simply.
It can be served as a separate dish, or as a side dish. Very often, housewives experiment and ratatouille are wrapped in pancakes. It turns out a very tasty and original appetizer. So the choice is yours. Cook, experiment, create your own unique ratatouille eggplant recipe, which your loved ones and friends will appreciate.