Now Playing: Ratatouille

About author / Victoria Wesseler

Healthy eating advocate; master gardener; local food expert. Even veggie haters love her recipes.

In the film industry, there is something called “the willing suspension of disbelief.” Wikipedia defines this as the “alleged willingness of a viewer to accept as true the premise of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic, impossible, or contradictory....the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment.”

Few things would have us in the culinary world suspend our judgment more than the premise of a rat turned chef in an upscale restaurant’s kitchen. But the movie Ratatouille plays out that fantasy and in less time than it takes to make a 3-minute egg, you are in love with the rodent and mesmerized by the sensational graphics. I don’t want to spoil the story for you, so I won’t say anymore other than--go see this great summer movie. It is absolutely delightful. When you come home, only one thing, of course, will do for dinner—a nice big bowl of ratatouille.

Ratatouille is a traditional comfort food from the Provence region of France and is made with zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, garlic and fresh basil. It’s perfect to make this time of year because it uses vegetables that are so abundant right now in our home gardens and Farmer’s Markets. Like so many traditional regional dishes, there are as many variations of the dish as there are those who cook it. Some like to cook all of the vegetables together at the same time in the skillet, preferring the vegetables to be meltingly soft in the final dish. I prefer to separately cook each vegetable and mix them together in the end to retain a bit of individuality for each ingredient. Some add thyme, basil, and parsley. I prefer only basil. Some use the Italian eggplant. I prefer the slim Japanese eggplants which always seem a bit more tender to me. It’s a dish that is simple to make, allows for plenty of creativity (you can vary the amounts of ingredients depending on your personal preferences), and only gets better after a day or two in the refrigerator.

So, if you’re looking for something fun to do on a lazy summer evening, check out this movie and then come home and make some ratatouille for supper. It will be an evening well spent.

Serves/Makes: 6

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 4 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
• 1 medium eggplant, cubed (peeled if desired)
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
• 3 small zucchini, sliced
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 small bay leaf, crumbled very fine (or leave whole and remove before serving)
• salt and pepper, to taste