Provence: Ratatouille

Ratatouille embodies the flavors of the south in many ways. The fresh produce of provence make this dish exceptional at the height of the summer months when tomatoes, eggplants and zuchinni are in abondance. It also takes the classic flavors of provence and brings them to life, smelling strongly of bay leaves and thyme.
This dish can easily be made large but in this case I made just enough for two people and I ate it with polenta (a Provencal favorite)  instead of a classic meaty main course.

This dish is really best when in season but it still can be enjoyed year round.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 IB oninons
1/4 IB eggplants
1/4 IB tomatoes
1/4 IB zucchini
1/2 head of garlic
Sea salt
2 bay leaves
3-4 spriges of fresh thyme
ground pepper
fresh basil

 

  

Start by chopping up the onions and adding them to 1/2 the olive oil in a large pot. Simmer until soft but still pale, about 10 minutes on medium low heat.

Cut up the eggplant and tomatoes, fairly uniform in size.

add the tomatoes, garlic, eggplant and salt to the onions and raise the heat. Let them cook down for about 30 minutes and release most of there juices. I found that the veggies did not have very much liquid in them due to the season so i added a very small amount of water to help them release their juices.

 

After about a half an hour add the zucchinis.

Try to submerge them in the liquid so they can cook.

Then add the herbs, submerge them as well. Let this cook another 30 minutes, you want to zucchinis to be nice and tender so it may take a bit longer.

When the zucchinis are tender you will want to remove all the juices from this and put them into a sauce pan. The most effective way to do this is to place a colander over a pan and press out the juices, Then place the colander over a bowl so the juices can continue to separate from the vegetables. 

Place the juices over medium heat and stir frequently.  Adding whatever other juices are released into the bowl the colander is over. You want to reduce these juices into a glaze for the vegetables. It will become much deeper in color. 

Because there was not much liquid it only took about 15minutes to reduce, thicken and darken in color. However if you are making a larger batch of this in the summer when the vegetables are juicer it could take up to an hour to effectively reduce the juices.

Warm up the polenta, you could make your own but I just bought the pre-made kinda which is still very good.

Remove the herbs from the ratatouille and put into the sauce pan and cover the vegetables in the glaze you just made.

Serve warm over the polenta. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil, sprinkle with pepper and garnish with basil.

Enjoy!