Ratatouille niçoise, a vegetarian recipe

Name: Ratatouille niçoise
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 85 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 2 aubergines, diced; 3 courgettes, diced; 2 peppers (red and yellow), sliced; 2 onions, sliced; 4 garlic cloves, chopped; 800 g ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped; 120 ml olive oil; 1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, rosemary); 1 bunch of basil; Salt and pepper

Method

In a large sauté pan, fry the aubergines in 4 tbsp oil until golden and tender. Set aside.
Do the same with the courgettes, then the peppers, adding oil each time. Keep each vegetable separate.
In the same pan, soften the onions for 8 minutes. Add the garlic, tomatoes and bouquet garni. Reduce for 20 minutes.
Return all the vegetables to the tomato sauce. Season and simmer, covered, over very low heat for 20 minutes.
Remove the bouquet garni, add the shredded basil and a drizzle of raw olive oil.
Serve hot, warm, or cold the next day, with rice, a poached egg, or bread if you are not avoiding gluten.

Cook the vegetables apart and combine them at the end. Started together, they release their water and collapse into a purée. Aubergine also drinks far more oil than courgette, which is another reason to give it its own pan.

The techniques this recipe uses

Sweat the aromatics
Medium heat, no browning: the onion should turn translucent and sweet, not toasted.
Reduce
Uncovered, water leaves and flavour concentrates. It is done when the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Frequently asked questions

Why not cook everything together from the start?

Put in raw together, the vegetables release their water and end up as a uniform mush. Fried separately, each one colours and keeps its own flavour; they meet only at the end, for twenty minutes over very low heat, to come together.

Do I need to salt the aubergines first?

Twenty minutes of salting draws out some of the water and noticeably cuts how much oil they soak up in the pan, since aubergine is a genuine sponge. Pat the cubes dry before browning them.

Is it better the next day?

It is excellent cold or warm the next day, the flavours having settled together. Add the fresh basil and a drizzle of raw olive oil at serving time, though, since basil stirred in the day before loses all its fragrance.

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Ratatouille niçoise

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

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Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

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