Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 8Simmer! (and research)
The question is, of course, for how long. The short answer is about 45 minutes.
The long answer is that there are multiple ways of making ratatouille.
You can think of the two poles of the ratatouille axis as salad and stew. On one end, you throw everything in, cook for the minimum to soften up your ingredients and you're done. This is pretty much the approach taken by Jacques Pepin in his Cuisine Economique. On the other end, you stew for hours, possibly roasting your tomatoes and maybe other ingredients in the oven first to build up flavor, and then go with that. In "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", Julia Child has you saute everything and then put it in the oven, although for a relatively short length of time. Escoffier says nothing in either of the editions of "A Guide to Modern Cookery" I own, which I just find strange. "The Best Recipe" says nothing either. Lame. "Cooking Essentials for the New Professional Chef", the CIA's cookbook, just says "stew, covered, until the vegetable are very tender" -- but I note they suggest adding chicken stock and their recipe only includes 6 ounces of fresh tomatoes -- well, concasse, meaning peeled and with the seeds and cores taken out -- for 10 servings of rat. Not really in love with their ingredients there, bein' all professional and all. Nigella says to slow cook for about an hour and a half all in all in "How to Cook", which is a bit more up our alley and probably at the other end of the spectrum from Jacques.
That was almost definitely more than you wanted to know.
Serve hot or cold; on couscous works pretty well. This also freezes well. It's even vegan, so useful to have in the freezer in case one drops by. You know, as they do. Enjoy!
The long answer is that there are multiple ways of making ratatouille.
You can think of the two poles of the ratatouille axis as salad and stew. On one end, you throw everything in, cook for the minimum to soften up your ingredients and you're done. This is pretty much the approach taken by Jacques Pepin in his Cuisine Economique. On the other end, you stew for hours, possibly roasting your tomatoes and maybe other ingredients in the oven first to build up flavor, and then go with that. In "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", Julia Child has you saute everything and then put it in the oven, although for a relatively short length of time. Escoffier says nothing in either of the editions of "A Guide to Modern Cookery" I own, which I just find strange. "The Best Recipe" says nothing either. Lame. "Cooking Essentials for the New Professional Chef", the CIA's cookbook, just says "stew, covered, until the vegetable are very tender" -- but I note they suggest adding chicken stock and their recipe only includes 6 ounces of fresh tomatoes -- well, concasse, meaning peeled and with the seeds and cores taken out -- for 10 servings of rat. Not really in love with their ingredients there, bein' all professional and all. Nigella says to slow cook for about an hour and a half all in all in "How to Cook", which is a bit more up our alley and probably at the other end of the spectrum from Jacques.
That was almost definitely more than you wanted to know.
Serve hot or cold; on couscous works pretty well. This also freezes well. It's even vegan, so useful to have in the freezer in case one drops by. You know, as they do. Enjoy!
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
 |
Add Comment
|
