Ratatouille -- the dish

I don't think I've ever actually had ratatouille. Is it very eggplanty?

It's an eggplant stew. Tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic, cheese. Whatever grows wildly in your region in the summer.

It's been a while since I made it. You really have to take a bloody long time until the veggies are soft enough. I made/make mine with eggplant, zuchhini (?), onions, peppers,... You can buy all the veggies in a "package" here.

Ratatouille was one of those things my Mum used to make enthusiastically for about a fortnight after we returned from holidays in the south of France. I hated it - not a fan of peppers and I couldn't stand the way their taste permeated the whole thing.

i have two recipes for ratt, basically tomato/squash/eggplant/bell pepps. one adds new potatoes, one doesn't. are olives necessary??

never heard of adding potataoes, and i don't use olives. if you have the stove space, the best way to make it is to cook each of the ingredients separately: eggplant, onions, squash, and peppers all in their own pans, and then roast the tomatoes in the oven. i started doing it this way after reading the kitchen diaries, and the difference that it makes is unbelievable. seriously!

oh, i forgot to add: once everything is cooked, mix it all together very briefly in the largest pan with freshly-torn basil leaves. you don't get mushiness, you don't get veg at varying degrees of doneness, and you don't get one flavor overwhelming the others.

i have always liked to include chickpeas. is that ratablasphemy?

Chickpeas are common to the mediterranean, southern france is the mediterranean, no need to be purist about it . . . especially given that the whole point with Ratatouille is that it's a classic peasants-throwing-whatever-vegetables-they-happen-to-have-into-a-pot dish, not French haute cuisine.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1186/1411525755_dd957388b9.jpg?v=0
I made some a few days ago. It was baked, so not mushy (Nick hates mushy veggies and tomatoes for that matter). I used this recipe from Sm1tten K1tchen.

I had never cooked with eggplant before, nor do I ever eat it really, so I'm not sure if it turned out ok. I still have about 1/2 eggplant's worth of fresh slices, but don't know what to do with them.

Should I fry it?

Season with whatever ground spices (cumin/cinnamon/various peppers/turmeric?), lightly coat with olive oil and fry, or bake under tomato sauce topped with cheese, or peel chop saute w/ garlic and whiz up w/ lemon into a dip?

How about bhajis? (Substitute for onion in this recipe)

i love ratatouille, but when i've had it it hasn't looked like that, nor like it does in the film. it's more of a mush, and generally i've eaten it cold in the summer.