Ratatouille alla Pixar

A few months ago I came across the recipe for Ratatouille from the Pixar film Ratatouille. The heart warming tale of a rat following his dreams to become a professional chef is easily my favorite Pixar film and making the namesake from the movie instantly intrigued me. Having recently received a Mandoline Slicer as a wedding present I was easily able to slice the vegetables in a matter of minutes. I made only a few alterations for ease of assembly: 1^st I substituted canned San Marzano tomatoes for the 3 tomatoes I was supposed to peel and chop for the Piperade, 2^nd I forgot to reserve some of the Piperade to combine with the vinaigrette at the end and instead substituted a tablespoon of tomato puree, and lastly the recipe is intended to serve 4 but we stretched it to 6 with the addition of buns and a side salad. I really enjoyed the recipe and I would easily make it again. I would say I prefer the flavours in this dish to other Ratatouille’s I have made, which have more emphasis on eggplant than the subtle mix of zucchini, tomato and eggplant here. One thing to note that given that this is a Thomas Keller recipe it is fairly time intensive, as most of his seem to be but in the end it was worth the effort.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dining/131rrex.html