If you focus on what you've left behind, then you'll never be able to see what lies ahead.
This is our beautiful vegetarian ratatouille.
Now, it's hard to believe,
but this film was actually released in 2007
and was Pixar's eighth film.
And/or is a beautiful Provence-style dish based around Mediterranean vegetables.
[Gasp] I've got the wrong brief for this, haven't I?
The latter we will go with.
Jamie, you're going to make an amazing tomato sauce for the base of our ratatouille
with the tomato and then I'm going to roast up some peppers to put into it,
layer up loads of the veg, cook it off... It's delightful.
I'm just really scared now that all of my facts are going to be slightly wrong.
On with the show.
Right, first off, you're going to peel and crack two cloves of garlic,
strip up some fresh thyme, and
put some saffron, add it to the tomatoes,
all into the pan, with a little glug of water
and bubble it away for a very simple tomato sauce.
And while you're doing that I'm going to take two red peppers,
prep them, and then roast them off.
Now, ratatouille is quite a Provence-style dish
from the Nice area, but there are lots of different variations of it
and I think this might be one of them.
This might be a bit of a Sorted twist on one
'cause we're going to roast off
some red peppers
and place that into our tomato sauce.
So we've got some roasted pepper in the tomato sauce as well as
some yellow pepper layered as well.
So a bit of the best of both.
So when Ben says it's a bit of a Sorted twist
what he really means is we've got this completely wrong
Uh.. Which is kind of the point of this series.
So you will need to tell how we should be doing this ratatouille
if you are French, even if you're not French, how would you do your ratatouille?
Yes... There are so many different ways.
All of this?
All of that in.
You've not committed to the cause-- I've shaved my beard.
'Scuze-- 'scuze me.
Whoa, whoa-- right.
I will-- I will admit: my strips are going in the wrong direction.
I had noticed that. [Laughs]
However: the French do not understand because
there are not many, shall we say, larger French people.
No.
And so therefore,
horizontal stripes-- Are not the most flattering. No, they're not.
So you need vertical stripes, Mr. Frenchman.
Tomatoes in, along with the fresh thyme,
a little glug of water,
and then basically heat it gently, bring it to a bubble simmer it for basically about 10-15 minutes,
which is the same amount of time the peppers will roast in the oven.
And the oven's up really high, about 240°.
In the meantime, we can look at all of our other veg, so an aubergine, a courgette:
you're in charge of those, just cut them into rounds
and I'm going to prep yellow pepper and some beef tomatoes much the same, so a similar sort of size
So, there are different types of ratatouille, isn't there?
Yes, so, I think, traditionally, and bear with me
but I think traditionally ratatouille was kind of
a rustic, country-fied dish,
lots of veg, all stewed down,
relatively cheap, because it was the veg that was in the area.
Oui.
But actually there are modernized versions of it
and you know the film.
Si.
Oh-- wait.
Augh, I'm really bad at the F.
You are really bad at French.
Thomas Keller invented this kind of version
for the film, 'cause it looked great.
So we're gonna go with that one.
Oui!
Je ne sais quoi.
So, what we're gonna need to do is dress all of our veg.
We want olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper
and then if you could just kind of toss those all together.
Add the tomatoes, be a bit more delicate with the tomato.
As you toss those all together, James, just add a couple more flavors, a bit more garlic.
Of course, it's French.
And some fresh thyme.
Okay, so toss all those in together, I'm going to get our red peppers out of the oven.
Look at those, nice and sweet with a few charred bits as well.
What we're gonna' do is blend those peppers up with your tomato sauce,
Jamie, to make an incredible base to our ratatouille.
Sauce, into there.
Peppers in as well.
And then blend the whole thing up to a sauce.
You can do that.
And that's the sauce. And already,
if you take a look, you'll be able to smell the roasted red pepper, the thyme, the garlic,
the tomato, the saffron.
Just gives it that incredible color.
Look at that-- it's the base of our dish.
Now, you could just chop up all the veg and cook it in the sauce
but this way you get a better presentation.
All we're gonna' do is layer alternate colors and veg all around--
and actually, I've completely forgotten, red onion as well.
Now, what I really like is we're following the advice of the great Joel Robuchon.
His advice was: The secret to the best ratatouille is to cook each of the vegetables individually
so they retain their own flavor, that when you bring them all together you get a cacophony of flavors.
I've elaborated with the word "cacophony".
But you know, I like to just add in a pretty bit of French every now and then.
And you do that so well, so fluently.
So I'm glad that we're following his advice.
And just before we put this into the oven to bake: a little splash of balsamic vinegar.
Just gives it a final [??]
And then it goes into an oven at 160°C, so we have lowered a bit since roasting our peppers.
Needs half an hour, then raise it back up for another half hour of cooking at 220°C.
In the meantime, we can quaff wine. Au revoir!
Oh hohohohoho! Look at that, for ratatouille, and absolutely gorgeous.
A little bit of fresh parsley,
and a final drizzle of gorgeous olive oil.
Beautiful!
And there it is: Our version of Thomas Keller's version of a traditional ratatouille.
SORTED!
Well, Ben, it's sur la table.
It certainly is and hopefully it's also delicious.
Now we know that there's loads of different types of ratatouille out there,
we want to see yours.
Is it like this? Is it something completely different?
Send us your pictures and comment down below and let us know what yours is like.