French Language Blog

Sir, Calm Down, There are *No Rats* in your Ratatouille !

Posted on 15. Feb, 2012 by Hichem in Cooking, Film, Vocabulary

Whether or not they enjoyed watching the eponymous Pixar computer-animated movie, people around the world find the taste of the French dish “Ratatouille” to be “very niiice“—A fact that turns out to make perfect sense, considering that the birthplace of the Ratatouille happens to be the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera) city of N I C E !

Sans transition (without further ado), here is how to prepare a Ratatouille, serving up to 6 persons—Good for large families, unless of course you have more siblings than Borat has!

* Les ingredients:

• 1 lb aubergines (eggplant)
  

  Aubergine

• 1 lb courgettes (zucchini)
• 4 tb huile d’olive (olive oil)
• 1/2 lb onions jaunes (yellow onions)
• 2 gousses d’ail (cloves of garlic)
• 1 lb tomate (tomatoes)
  

  Goussees d'ail

  

  Persil

• 3 tb persil (parsley)

 

The 2007 Pixar computer-animated movie “Ratatouille“, la bande-annonce (the trailer)

* Étapes de préparation (Preparation steps):

 

• Peel then cut les aubergines (the eggplants) into long slices, and cut the zucchini into slices too, but don’t peel them! Then put them all in a bowl. Add un peu d’eau (some water), and leave it for 30 minutes, then drain.

• Sauté the eggplant and les courgettes (zucchini) with l’huile d’olive (oil) in a skillet.
• Cook the onions with olive oil in the skillet for 10 minutes over moderate heat. Stir in l’ail (the garlic.) Add du sel et du poivre (salt and pepper.)

• Peel les tomates (the tomatoes), and boil them for half a minute. Cut into des morceaux (slices.) Lay them over the onions in the skillet. Cover, and cook over petit feu (low heat) for about 5 minutes, then uncover. Pour le jus (the juice) from the the skillet over the tomatoes. Raise heat and boil for plusieurs minutes (several minutes) until the juice starts evaporating.

• Put 1/3 of the tomatoes mixture into une casserole. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of persil (parsley.) Then put half of the eggplant and zucchini. Then another third of tomatoes. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of parsley. Put le reste (the remaining) of the eggplant and zucchini, then the tomatoes and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of parsley.

• Cover and simmer over low heat for about ten minutes, then uncover. Pour le jus (again, the juice) over les légumes (the vegetables.) Raise the heat to moderate and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Keep pouring the juice during the process several times over the vegetables.

* Serving: Ratatouille is either served chaude (hot) or froide (cold.)

Your Ratatouille is now ready, you can enjoy it–-Bon appétit!

Tags: borat, cote d'azur, French cooking, French Riviera, nice, pixar, ratatouille, very niiice