Ratatouille

A few years ago, I attended a banquet in the UK with my family. This was a relatively normal thing, my aunt and cousin are members of Lodges and there are several dinners and dances throughout the year. Soooo, at this particular dinner, I happened to be seated next to a seemingly normal looking older lady… Then she opened her mouth.

Do you remember the animated movie Ratatouille (It was about a little French rodent who lived in the kitchen of a world class restaurant, and was a master chef)? This dinner happened around the time the movie was released. On the menu was; you guessed it, ratatouille.

The seemingly normal older lady read her menu, turned to me, very obviously horrified, and said “they have ratatouille tonight that is a rat, I’m not eating a rat thing”. I. Kid. You. Not.
It took all my restraint not to double over laughing, and keep my face in check. I believe I turned to my mother after what I thought to be a reasonable amount of time, and mentioned the incident. I believe she laughed, then we lamented the fact that dessert was just Brandy Snaps and we didn’t want that.

​Anyhoo

So it turned out that ratatouille wasn’t actually rodent (the lady still refused to eat it), but some thinly sliced baked vegetables. It was pretty good.

And we arrive at the present.

I’ve been thinking that I would like to try my hand at making the dish. From the recipes I researched, it called for zucchini, I didn’t have zucchini, I had butternut squash. Zucchini is a kind of squash (I think), so I figured it would work. Work with what you have people, pretty sure that’s how these chef types come up with recipes.
It’s a fancy looking dish that takes about an hour in the oven, and isn’t really complicated to put together. Tomato sauce, you can buy that ready-made, or you can make your own (I vote for make your own), then you just fill your baking dish a little under halfway (or to halfway) with the sauce, and stack your sliced veggies until you have no more space.

​My first attempt came out pretty decent, and I’ll definitely make it again. It’ll make a great side dish and is an easy way of getting vegetables into your diet, plus it will impress your dinner guestsJ. Don’t be put off by fancy looking dishes, just have a nose about the internet, you might be surprised about how simple they might be to make.