Julia Child's Recipe for Ratatouille (2024)

Recipes

18
Jul

The eggplant, or aubergine, belongs to the group of fruits and vegetables known as nightshades. Although closely related to the tomato and potato, it’s actually classified as a berry. It’s also a distant cousin of tobacco.Though eggplant becomes tender when cooked, the raw fruit has a bitter taste. Salting and rinsing it before cooking (a technique known asdegorging)can help soften it andcutthe bitterness.

Julia Child’s Recipe for Ratatouille

Recipe Type: Side Dish

Author: Julia Child

Serves: 6 to 8

Excerpted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Copyright © 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. as part of the JC100 Celebration.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb eggplant
  • 1 lb zucchini
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 Tb olive oil
  • 1/2 lb (about 1 1/2 cups) thinly sliced yellow onions
  • 2 (about 1 cup) sliced green bell peppers
  • 2 to 3 Tb olive oil, if necessary
  • 2 cloves mashed garlic
  • 1 lb firm, ripe, red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and juiced (about 1/ 1/2 cups pulp)
  • 3 Tb minced parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Peel the eggplant and cut into lengthwise slices 3/8 inch thick, about 3 inches long, and 1 inch wide. Scrub the zucchini, slice off the two ends, and cut the zucchini into slices about the same size as the eggplant slices. Place the vegetables in a bowl and toss with the salt. Let stand for 30 minutes. Drain. Dry each slice in a towel.
  2. One layer at a time, sauté the eggplant, and then the zucchini in the hot olive oil for about a minute on each side to brown very lightly. Remove to a side dish.
  3. In the same skillet, cook the onions and peppers slowly in olive oil for about 10 minutes, or until tender but not browned. Stir in the garlic and season to taste.
  4. Slice the tomato pulp into 3/8 inch strips. Lay them over the onions and peppers. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the skillet and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until tomatoes have begun to render their juice. Uncover, baste the tomatoes with the juices, raise heat and boil for several minutes, until juice has almost entirely evaporated.
  5. Place a third of the tomato mixture in the bottom of a casserole and sprinkle over it 1 tablespoon of parsley. Arrange half of the eggplant and zucchini on top, then half the remaining tomatoes and parsley. Put in the rest of the eggplant and zucchini, and finish with the remaining tomatoes and parsley.
  6. Cover the casserole and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover, tip casserole and baste with the rendered juices. Correct seasoning, if necessary. Raise heat slightly and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes more, basting several times, until juices have evaporated leaving a spoonful or two of flavored olive oil. Be careful of your heat; do not let the vegetables scorch in the bottom of the casserole.
  7. Set aside uncovered. Reheat slowly at serving time, or serve cold.

Notes

Ratatouille perfumes the kitchen with the essence of Provence and is certainly one of the great Mediterranean dishes. As it is strongly flavored it is best when it accompanies plain roast or broiled beef or lamb, pot-au-feu (boiled beef), or plain roast, broiled, or sautéed chicken. Equally good hot or cold, it also makes a fine accompaniment to cold meats, or may be served as a cold hors-d’oeuvre.

When I first read through this recipe, I thought it called for an extraordinarily large amount of olive oil but the eggplant soaked it up like a sponge. In fact, my vegetable stew could have used a little more liquid.

According to Julia,

“Areally good ratatouille is not one of the quicker dishes to make, as each element is cooked separately ….before it is arranged in the casserole to partake of a brief communal simmer.This recipe is the only one we know of which produces aratatouillein which each vegetable retains its own shape and character.Happily, a ratatouille may be cooked completely the day before it is to be served, and it seems to gain flavor when reheated.”

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  • Nelia Nunes

    I am a mom of 2 who travels a lot for work (I work in the event/conference/tradeshow industry). I grew up and currently live in Northern California.

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Nelia Nunes

I am a mom of 2 who travels a lot for work (I work in the event/conference/tradeshow industry). I grew up and currently live in Northern California.

Julia Child's Recipe for Ratatouille (2024)

FAQs

Did Julia Child make ratatouille? ›

Ratatouille, one of Julia Child's favorite recipes, perfumes the kitchen with the essence of Provence and is a seasonal favorite throughout the Mediterranean region. Since it has a strong flavor, any simply prepared meat such as a roast chicken, broiled beef or lamb, will make a perfect meal pairing.

What was Julia Child's best dish? ›

Child's Boeuf Bourguignon recipe was featured in one of the earliest episodes of The French Chef and has become a classic among the many Child enthusiasts at GBH. In fact, GBH News host Henry Santoro concludes there's no better recipe for the dish.

What does he cook in ratatouille? ›

Fun fact: the signature dish Rémy serves at the end of Ratatouille isn't technically a ratatouille; it's a tian, which is an artful arrangement of sliced summer vegetables baked over a tomato and pepper sauce. Ratatouille, on the other hand, is a much more of a rustic stew.

What is the real name of the dish in ratatouille movie? ›

Confit byaldi is a variation on the traditional French dish ratatouille by the French chef Michel Guérard.

Was Gusteau real in Ratatouille? ›

When Remy asks how a man can communicate with a rat, Auguste admits that he is a figment of Remy's imagination and it is Remy's mind that is channeling him from the great beyond. The character has some parallels to the real chef, Ettore Boiardi.

Who is the real chef in Ratatouille? ›

Auguste Gusteau is a direct tribute to the late Bernard Loiseau, a gourmet French chef and restaurateur. Gusteau's life is fully inspired from Bernard Loiseau. In the original screenplay, Gusteau was still alive, but Brad Bird concluded there were too many stories to tell and decided Gusteau would be dead.

What is Julia Child's favorite food? ›

Vichyssoise. Well-known as one of Julia Child's favorite dishes, this chilled leek and potato soup is startling in its simplicity. Aside from the leek, potato, and water, Child's version of the soup calls for barely any additional ingredients.

What did Julia Child eat for breakfast? ›

Child -- put me and them at ease with her genuine friendliness and zest for living. She ordered a hearty breakfast -- grapefruit half, plain yogurt, fried egg, 2 strips bacon, toast with butter and preserves, orange juice, and coffee with milk -- and ate most of it despite constant interruptions.

What is Julia Child's most famous dessert? ›

This Queen of Sheba Chocolate Cake is one of Julia Child's most famous recipes, and for all the right reasons. It's a simple cake recipe that yields a rich chocolatey taste with hints of almonds and a thin layer of chocolate buttercream to wow your guests.

What's the secret of a good ratatouille? ›

Cooking each vegetable separately before combining them in ratatouille ensures that each component cooks to the right texture and retains its distinct flavor. Different vegetables have varying cooking times; for instance, eggplants and peppers take longer to become tender compared to tomatoes and zucchini.

What is the actual dish in ratatouille? ›

The authentic version is not a neatly arranged plate; it's a hearty, somewhat disheveled stew. In truth, the dish from the movie is Confit byaldi, a twist on the conventional French dish ratatouille, concocted by French chef Michel Guérard and adapted for the movie by Chef Thomas Keller.

What does ratatouille mean in French? ›

The word ratatouille derives from the Occitan ratatolha and is related to the French ratouiller and tatouiller, expressive forms of the verb touiller, meaning "to stir up". From the late 18th century, in French, it merely indicated a coarse stew.

What color is Remy the Rat? ›

He is a bluish-gray rat from Paris with a passion for food, and dreams of becoming a professional chef.

Was Ratatouille based on a true story? ›

This heartbreaking story was not an invention. Pixar took inspiration from Bernard Loiseau, a gastronomical legend from France who died by suicide when he found out about a star that was going to be knocked off. Like Gusteau, Loiseau was also a pioneer in French cuisine, and foodies would recognize the parallels well.

What are 10 foods that were in Ratatouille? ›

A classic ratatouille includes eggplant (aubergines), zucchini (courgettes), bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and herbs.

Who invented Ratatouille recipe? ›

This beloved summer stew first emerged as a solution for hunger, as it was invented by poor farmers back in 1700s Provençe. With so many bellies to fill, nothing could go to waste. Accordingly, the French peasants would cook their leftover vegetables for hours to create a hearty, coarse stew.

Who is the French female chef in Ratatouille? ›

Colette Tatou is the tritagonist of Disney•Pixar's 2007 animated feature film, Ratatouille. She worked as the rôtisseur chef and self-proclaimed "toughest cook in the kitchen" of Gusteau's in Paris.

Is the old woman in Ratatouille? ›

Mabel is a minor antagonist in Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille (2007). She's an elderly woman who lives in a countryside cottage away from Paris which was originally the home of Remy, his family and his friends. She was voiced by the late Sally Kellerman.

Who is the chef in Ratatouille and Remi? ›

Remy, a young rat with heightened senses of taste and smell, dreams of becoming a chef like his human idol, the late Auguste Gusteau, but the rest of his colony, including his older brother Émile and his father, the clan leader Django, only eat for sustenance and are wary of humans.

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