Ratatouille

Eggplant

So the question is, what do I do with all those tomatoes?  We can a lot, but one of my favorite summer dishes is ratatouille.  We have everything needed in the garden: sweet onions, zucchini, eggplant, and of course, tomatoes.  It was the first dish Christophe ever made me, and I swear to this day, no one makes it better.  When he told me he was making ratatouille that first time, I didn’t understand at all; it’s that whole accent thing.  He repeated the word over and over again, and then I finally had a light bulb moment and got it. (However, understand Jewelia Rowbear for Julia Roberts took a good hour.)

And, I have to be honest, before that moment, I never ate ratatouille before.  Growing up, we had more zucchini than we knew what to do with – zucchini bread, zucchini and tomato casserole, zucchini chocolate chip cookies, and zucchini chocolate cake – but we never ate eggplant.  I think if I was handed it as a child I wouldn’t have known what to do with it.  I grew up in a typical Mid-Western family; we had green beans, corn, and of course, zucchini.  In the winter, we ate potatoes.  Its funny how all that has evolved; I’m in a Mediterranean environment.  It’s super-hot, we eat late, and eggplant (2 varieties) is an everyday summer food.  Ratatouille anywhere else just wouldn’t be the same.  Yes, part of it is the vegetables are fresh from the garden, but the other part of it is location; the vegetables scream “Mediterranean” and not “Mid-West”.  I do miss a good ear of sweet corn freshly husked, boiled, and buttered, but I have an appreciation for new local comfort foods, that like that ear of corn, reflect the place and the people who live there.