Cooking For Pleasure: Recreating a ratatouille tart from a trip to southern France

The other day my sister Mary and I were reminiscing about our favorite things to eat when we were in the south of France (on separate trips). I was there during late summer when ratatouille (a French vegetable stew of eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and squash) was always on the menu in local restaurants. Once we ate it in the form of a tart that was mind-boggling delicious.

When I returned to Juneau a couple of weeks later I tried to figure out how to make it, but after one disastrous attempt I gave up. For years I kept thinking about this tart and decided to attempt it again this week. So after fruitlessly scouring the internet for recipes I made up this one up. It turned out to be a showstopper; elegant, visually beautiful and delicious.

This tart takes time and attention. For those of you who totally dread the thought of making pastry, you can use these ingredients to simply making a gratin in a casserole. It will taste just fine; it just won’t have a crust. I used a dirt cheap mandoline to slice the squash which does it lickety split, but if you have a very sharp knife and are skilled at slicing, you will do just fine. It’s important to keep the sliced vegetables the same width (about an eighth of an inch for the tart, a quarter of an inch if you are making this as a gratin casserole).

EGGPLANT LAYER:

Ingredients:

1 small firm shiny eggplant, peeled and diced into small cubes

1 red or green bell pepper, cored, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced fine

4 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper

In a large frying pan, saute the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until soft. Add eggplant, garlic and chopped pepper. Cook, stirring frequently until the vegetables are softened. Add salt and pepper. Remember to taste for seasoning. Set aside and let cool for about 10 minutes.

THE SQUASH AND TOMATO LAYERS:

One small zucchini

One small yellow squash (the same diameter as the zucchini)

6 or so small tomatoes (Compari or Roma)

Olive oil

Salt, pepper and ½ teaspoon dried thyme

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

While the eggplant mixture is cooling, slice zucchini and squash about 1/8 an inch thick, taking care to make them the same size. Slice tomatoes as thin as you can manage.

Spread the cooled eggplant mixture on the blind-baked tart crust. Layer the yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes in concentric circles or other decorative pattern over the eggplant mixture.

Brush squash and tomatoes generously with olive oil

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove tart from oven and sprinkle with a mixture of ½ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese and/or ½ cup bread crumbs.

Return to oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove the tart to a rack and let cool for about 20 minutes (or longer) before serving.

TART CRUST

In a food processor, or by hand, blend 1¼ cup flour and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add one 8 oz cube of cold butter, cut into cubes. Mix in processor (or by hand) until butter is the size of small peas.

Add three tablespoons of ice-cold water blended with two tablespoons of cold plain vodka (the vodka helps prevent the crust from shrinking). Blend to mix. Turn out dough onto a floured board and shape into an eight-inch disk. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out dough and gently place into an 11-inch tart pan. Prick dough all over. Place pie weights or dried beans in aluminum foil onto crust.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove beans or weights from pastry. Return to oven for 10 more minutes.

Remove and let cool for 10 minutes before placing the filling onto the crust.

• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London, has cooked meals for both AWARE and the Glory Hall, and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in Capital City Weekly.