Small Win #2: This will change your mind about ratatouille
It’s a ratatouille renaissance! Plus a note on the “hot rodent boyfriend” trend
Hello and welcome to Small Wins!
In life, it’s the small steps that often lead to the BIG wins — so every other week I share a small win that has the power to enhance your cooking, your home, your life.
In the first week of Small Wins (BIG thank you to everyone who has subscribed!) we talked about panna cotta, which was a fairly safe bet, I would say — who doesn’t like a sexy Italian dessert? And in the next few weeks we’ll be tackling other universal favourites like pizza dough, and tacos, and tomato sauce. But today I’m risking it all on something that is currently pretty unsexy: ratatouille!
Stick with me, okay? There are a lot of reasons to love ratatouille (more on which below) and whilst I know you’ve probably been burnt by a bland, boring version of this dish before, this one is different. This is a distinctly untraditional, one-dish, oven-roasted ratatouille that I feel compelled to add to your repertoire. In other words, welcome to the ratatouille renaissance.
Not only is this recipe straightforward and pretty hands off, it also makes the most delicious ratatouille you will ever taste — with great of depth of flavour and umami-richness. Plus, I’m really excited to share with you one of my top flavour hacks. Let’s get into it!
Love,
Alexina
Coming up in the next few weeks - Why the best homemade pizza dough is also the easiest, the most underrated summer dessert + the final(ish) word on tomato sauce
For my Small Wins+ Community - This month it’s all about jam-making but next month we’ll be diving into kitchen organisation. A few of the things we’ll cover: the problem with most #OrganisationInspo, the storage tools that are actually worth your money, a couple of organisational principles to help you arrange your space and brutal honesty about the kitchen equipment that you don’t need. (Small Wins+ is the supercharged version of this newsletter for paid subscribers — find out more here.)
P.S. There’s a limited time offer on the annual subscription — for the month of July only it’s £39/yr instead of £59/yr. And that’s a lifetime price: you’ll never pay more. Go get it!
POOR OL’ RATATOUILLE
A stalwart of the 1980s dinner party, ratatouille has developed a distinctly uncool reputation. ‘Soggy’, ‘dated’ and ‘bland’ are all words I’ve heard used to attack the humble ratatouille and I’m a little baffled! When made well, ratatouille is the essence of excellent Mediterranean cuisine:
virtuously veg-packed (i.e. a cheat code for reaching your 10-a-day)
rich in extra virgin olive oil, giving it a silky AF texture
a supremely versatile accompaniment to basically everything (meat, fish, eggs, cheese, potatoes, pasta, polenta and bread: all so good with it!)
plus it keeps and improves over days in the fridge
My mum’s excellent ratatouille is based on a recipe from Elizabeth David’s classic French Provincial Cooking and it’s a traditional affair: cooked on the stove, plenty of olive oil, plenty of time taken over the cooking of each vegetable. However, today I’m here to share with you a recipe for ratatouille that requires much less of your attention, and results in something so impossibly delicious it has the power to convert ratatouille-skeptics the world over.
Let me introduce you to roasted ratatouille.
You bung everything in a big cast iron casserole or roasting tin in the oven, and you let time and heat do their thing. You let the edges of the vegetables char. You give the whole thing the occasional stir. By the end you have a mass of caramelised vegetables sufficiently reduced to deliver maximum flavour. It’ll last for days in the fridge — perfect hot or cold— and is the ultimate batch-cooking win.
This is the sort of reaction you can expect:
THE BEST RATATOUILLE = ROASTED RATATOUILLE
Adapted from Food52 Vegan by Gena Hamshaw via Alexandra’s Kitchen
Serves 8
Even if you’re not serving 8, this is worth making in a large quantity given it’s going into the oven for a few hours. It’s super versatile, keeps for at least 5 days in the fridge and freezes brilliantly well too.
Ingredients
600g aubergine (2—3 aubergines), chopped into 1-inch pieces
1kg medium tomatoes, quartered
600g courgettes (around 4), sliced into 1.5cm pieces
4 red peppers, deseeded and chopped into 1-inch pieces
2 large onions, sliced
2 banana shallots (or 3-4 standard shallots), thinly sliced
8 cloves of garlic, crushed
3/4 to 1 cups olive oil (I use EVOO)
6 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (I have always used the Belazu one, but Mazetti have a version (that I’ve not tried yet) which has won an award and is better value)
3 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed
2 tsp Diamond kosher salt (or 1 tsp fine sea salt), plus more to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Equipment
Large roasting dish (or you can split this amount across two smaller dishes)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C fan/220°C/425°F/gas mark 7.
Add the prepared veg to a big roasting dish one by one (aubergines first, then courgettes etc.), seasoning each vegetable layer with a generous couple of pinches of salt.
Add the garlic, olive oil and the white balsamic vinegar (this ingredient is essential!), then toss it all together (easiest with your hands).
Cook the ratatouille in the oven for between 2 and 3 hours, stirring every 30-45 minutes until the vegetables have softened and the juices have reduced. (See below for what it’ll look like around 1 to 1.5 hours into cooking.) Cooking the ratatouille closer to the 2-hour mark will result in something slightly fresher, whilst closer to 3 hours will lead to a more reduced, jammy effect. It’s completely down to what you prefer!
Note: Bear in mind that ovens vary — both this and what you cook it in may affect the overall cooking time.
FURTHER READING + RESOURCES
Disney’s Ratatouille — based on the adventures of young rat Remy who dreams of becoming a chef — is one of the finest food films ever made. If you have yet to watch it, please remedy this now.
And if you fancy making the kaleidoscopic ratatouille from said film then Deb at Smitten Kitchen came up with a recipe for that: head right this way
Speaking of rodents, did you know that the latest Gen Z craze is for the “hot rodent boyfriend”? Every day on this earth is a wonder and a joy.
SHARING IS CARING
If you think someone else would benefit from this post, go ahead and share the knowledge!
BITTER — MY COOKBOOK!
In case you didn’t know, I wrote a cookbook called BITTER which:
Explains why bitterness is the missing ingredient in your cooking
Teaches you how to work with bitter flavours
Shares over 80 delicious recipes
Head this way if that sounds like a bit of you 🖤
DISCLOSURES
This post may contain affiliate links. I only link to items that I have paid for in full and have used extensively.
Looks amazing. Should I cover in the oven or leave?
Can’t wait to meal prep this 🙌🏼