Ratatouille, a healthy vegetable stew, is a classic French dish and certainly not a Swiss invention. However, being neighbours of the French, ratatouille is something we Swiss eat often, hence it’s an important part of our food heritage. I regularly cook ratatouille on our meat free days. We either eat it with risotto and parmesan cheese, or with couscous or polenta. I like making a big batch of which we eat half of it as ratatouille on that day and we blend the other half to use it as a tasty pasta sauce a few days later. The recipe below is for two batches for four people each (one ratatouille dinner, one pasta sauce dinner). If you want to make just one portion you can do half of all ingredients. However, ratatouille is also perfect for freezing, so you could always make it all and freeze half of it for later use.
I’m sure there are hundreds of ratatouille recipes out there. This one here is the way my family has made it for decades.
Recipe for 2 batches (4 portions each)
- 1 medium-sized onion
- 1 bell pepper (I prefer red, orange or yellow)
- 1 large courgette
- 1 aubergine
- 2 x 4oog tins of chopped tomatoes
- 2.5 tsp beef/chicken/vegetable stock powder or 1 cube
- salt, pepper
Method
Finely chop the onions. Wash all other vegetables and cut them into small pieces.
Fry the chopped aubergine in a frying pan with 2-3 tbsp of oil until soft. This will take 10-15 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, don’t use aubergine and make your ratatouille just with the other vegetables.
In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and gently fry the chopped onion until soft. Add all other vegetables including the fried aubergine, the tinned tomatoes, the stock cube or powder and some salt and pepper. Heat up until it’s bubbling and then reduce the heat and let it cook for 30-40 minutes.
You can add fresh herbs like parsley in the end if you like.
Serve with a risotto, couscous or polenta or anything else!
