n. Vegetables. The Mediterranean Fruit Quartet

Tomato, Bell Pepper, Zucchini, Eggplant

Although they originally come from Mesoamerica and India for the latter, these fruits have been adopted rather enthusiastically in Mediterranean cuisine where they are actually treated as vegetables. The zucchini (courgette in French) is apparently the latest creation, born in Italy barely more than 100 years ago from more traditional squash parents. This makes French claims to 200 years of ratatouille slightly dubious, at least in its present definition.

Alexandre’s Tomato Sauce

This sauce’s recipe, inherited from Périgord, was perfected by my father and slightly modernized (possibly spoiled) by my impatience. It can be used as a topping for spaghetti and as a base for tomato soup. We have never tired of it and we actually prepare it year-round, despite our reluctance to use sub-par tomatoes in the winter months.   

You will need:

×           2 onions

×           3 to 4 cloves of garlic

×           3 lbs. tomatoes

×           2 stalks of celery

×           Salt and pepper

Chop and brown the onions in a pot. Add salt.

Once onions are a golden color, throw in the peeled garlic cloves and then the tomatoes, cut in halves or quarters.

Add the celery.

Simmer for 45 minutes or more if needed.

Try to fish out all the tomato skins.

Blend well with a hand blender: you will obtain a thick sauce which you can salt/pepper to taste. Put in an airtight jar in the refrigerator if you don’t use it immediately. It may keep without any change of taste for quite a while. (1)

Roasted Tomatoes

Another way to use tomatoes takes time to cook, but will take none of your own time. Roasted tomatoes can be used as an accompaniment, a side dish, or a topping for pasta. Use Roma tomatoes which hold up well when cooked.

You will need:

×           3 lbs. Roma tomatoes

×           Olive oil

×           Salt, pepper, and thyme

×           1 large ovenproof dish

Pour a ribbon of olive oil into the dish.

Cut the tomatoes in 2 lengthwise and spread the halves on the dish face up.

Add a few more drops of olive oil and salt.

Put in the oven at low/medium heat.

After 45 minutes, sprinkle liberally with thyme, and press each tomato with the back of a fork to express its juices.

Put back in the oven for another 45 minutes, checking from time to time that nothing is burning.

You should obtain rich, shriveled, dark, fragrant tomato halves that will melt in your mouth when you taste them.

Add pepper, and serve immediately or shortly after.

These tomatoes can also be stacked in an airtight container and kept in the fridge for some time. Beware though! They will never be as good as freshly out of the oven!

Roasted Zucchini, Pepper, Eggplant

You can also lay down all these vegetables in a dish or on a cookie sheet, pour a bit of olive oil, salt and leave in a medium heat oven for 40 minutes, roasting gently and melting nicely.

Escalivada

This is a grilled version of the same vegetables, bearing a Catalan name.

Sautéed Bell Peppers and Onions

Bell peppers and onions can be cooked separately or together, provided you give the pepper 5 minutes to start ahead of the onion. Chop them either finely or coarsely and sauté them on medium/high heat first and lower heat after so that they melt nicely. Onions can be salted to accelerate their browning.

You can flavor them according to the uses you intend to have:

×           If they stand alone, turmeric or curry can complement them nicely.

×           If you want to use them for a ratatouille, just salt and pepper will be nice, before adding herbs. You can also add 2 garlic cloves cut in half during the melting stage.

Sautéed Zucchini

This is a way to have nicely browned, tasty, crisp and firm zucchini. Choose rather smallish zucchini.

For visual effect, partially peel the zucchini lengthwise, making stripes of dark green skin and light green peeled flesh.

Cut in two lengthwise, and then in 2 or 3 again, according to the zucchini size. Cut in pieces 1 ½ inch long.

Sauté in a pan with olive oil on high heat, making sure you do not burn them.

Salt a bit after 10 minutes.

They will start releasing more water and become softer. Keep the temperature high so they do not become mushy.

Cook for 10 more minutes. They should be ready.

Salt and pepper to taste. Add some chopped thyme or savory. Serve.

Sautéed Eggplants

Eggplants are a little bit trickier. If you do not want to transfer to them all of your olive oil, you need to get some of their water out before cooking. This is done by salting them raw, before starting to cook. The way I do it is the following:

Cut the eggplants lengthwise in ¼ inch thick slices. You may discard the top and bottom which will be mainly eggplant skin. Salt the slices and reconstitute the eggplants. Let them sit like that for 2 hours or so. When you come back to them, you will see they have given off quite a bit of water. It is now necessary to rinse them so they are not too salty. You can do that as you would with a sponge, plunging them in fresh water and squeezing them several times.

Once this process is over, dry them with a paper towel and sauté them normally in a pan, on medium heat, turning them over once or twice to make sure that each slice is golden on both sides. 

Ratatouille, the Wonderful Blend

Most people cook ratatouille the way it was intended, with all their ingredients together. This is certainly faster and easier, but for exceptional bliss you must cook all ingredients separately. Only this method will allow you to cook every ingredient perfectly al dente.

Then, you just have to assemble your ratatouille and mix it at the last minute. It uses the four recipes we just prepared, with some herbs added.

1.     Sautéed bell peppers and onions, (with a few fennel seeds? minced garlic?)

2.     Roasted tomatoes, with parsley or rosemary

3.     Sautéed zucchini, with chopped thyme or oregano

4.     Sautéed eggplants, cut up in pieces, with chopped basil

It is ready, lukewarm or at room temperature. Does it need to be heated? Not if you eat it on a beautiful summer day, accompanied by roasted lamb or grilled fish. You might even start believing in miracles.

Zucchini/Tomato Tian (2)

Raw tomato and zucchini slices are arranged in overlapping stripes in the same dish and baked. In a way it is a counterpart to the gratin dauphinois in another taste register.

You will need:

×           3 lbs. of zucchini

×           3 lbs. small or medium sized ripe tomatoes

×           A small garlic clove, thyme

×           Olive oil, salt and pepper

Cut the garlic clove in 2 and rub against the dish thoroughly.

Pour a ribbon of olive oil on the bottom and sides of the dish.

Peel the zucchini (see Sautéed Zucchini above) and slice it. Slices should be about ¼ inch thick.

Cut the tomatoes into slices of the same thickness.

Arrange slices in the dish: one row of overlapping zucchini slices, then a row of overlapping tomato slices, and so on.

All this has to be generous: You should not be able to see the bottom of the dish.

Add some olive oil and thyme on top.

Bake at medium/high temperature for about 30 minutes.

After 15 minutes, press each slice individually with the back of a fork or a spatula to express the vegetable water and help them to melt. Monitor regularly to make sure they are cooked to your satisfaction: slightly glazed, juicy, and gleaming.

Salt and pepper to taste.

This dish is ready to serve. Bring to the table and wait for exclamations. It is indeed appetizing. Most roasted meats and fish will like it. Actually, it is so good you could use it as a main dish, with some steamed white rice. 

Stuffed Tomatoes and Bell Peppers (Tomates/Poivrons Farcis)

You will need:

×           6 large, ripe tomatoes with solid skin (3)

×           1 ½ lb. ground meat (leftovers, plain pork sausage, chicken liver, combinations)

×           Similar volume of bread ( the soft inside part of sliced bread, (a little stale if possible)

×           1 egg

×           1/2 garlic clove, minced

×           2 tbsp. minced parsley

×           Salt and pepper

For each tomato, slice off the top and spoon out most of the flesh, leaving the outer wall,  2/8 or 3/8 inch thick.

Discard seeds if possible, but reserve the flesh for the stuffing.

Salt inside and bake in the oven for 40 minutes (375°F), including the lids.

Meanwhile prepare the stuffing using meat, chopped bread, the chopped tomato flesh, garlic, and parsley. Beat the egg and throw it in. Salt and pepper to taste.

Take the tomatoes out, empty out their water, stuff them liberally, and put the tops back on.

Bake in the oven until ready, about 40 more minutes. Take your cue from the browning stuffing.

For a tomato lover, this is an intensely satisfying dish. The main quality of this specific stuffing is to incorporate tomato flesh, and that makes it particularly moist.  It is a good idea to use that same stuffing the same day for other vegetables: zucchini or bell peppers which will impart their faint, haunting chili bitterness. Peppers have a thin outside wall and will need to be pre-cooked for 10/15 minutes only. 

Stuffed Zucchini Trio

Zucchini also can be stuffed successfully. For this purpose, it will be easier to use small round zucchini, which will hold nicely and make for a nice presentation.

Preparation work is easy. Keep the skin, cut them in two. Boil them for 10 minutes. Carve out the inside.

To make the dish more festive, I propose 3 different stuffings. You can, of course, invent your own.

1.     Scallions, carrots, pre-cooked sausage, basil, curry.

2.     Mushrooms, cauliflower, cooked ham, cilantro, cumin, paprika.

3.     Tomatoes, zucchini flesh, sautéed artichokes, sage, thyme.

Stuff the zucchini and place them out in a baking dish. Sprinkle generously with olive oil.

Bake for 30 minutes in medium heat oven. Serve.

This can be a great side dish with a mixed grill.

Candied Sweet Red Peppers

You can enjoy this dish alone as an appetizer, with some fresh herbs added. It also complements avocado very well. It can also be used in salads, as a sandwich topping, or as a pasta condiment.

You will need:

×           6 to 7 red peppers, as ripe as possible

×           3-4 garlic cloves

×           Olive oil, salt and pepper

×           Fresh herbs, tarragon, lemon thyme or basil

In a first step, you need to eliminate the skin of the peppers. Several methods are possible. The longest one but the least involving for the cook is to roast the peppers in the oven at 350°F for about 40 minutes. Try to minimize skin burns. You can then easily separate the skin from the flesh by peeling under cold water. Try to keep peeled pieces as large as possible. Make sure to eliminate all seeds.

In the second step, transfer the pepper pieces to a sauce pan. Add the peeled garlic cloves, salt, cover, and simmer in olive oil until glazed by the pepper’s sugar. This should take another hour.                                                             

Allow to cool down. Salt and pepper to taste. Replace the oil with new fragrant fresh oil.

You can save in a closed jar for a few days. Add basil or another favorite herb when serving.

(1)    There was another parental secret ingredient, a minuscule piece of rancid pork fat, which I also used religiously to uphold the tradition until I discovered that its off taste was a throwback to my father’s childhood, not mine, and that the sauce was, to my taste, better without it!

(2)    Tian originally refers to the name of the earthenware cooking dish in Provençal.

(3)    This may unfortunately exclude most heirloom tomatoes.