Corners and Ratatoullie

When I step outside the big blue doors of my apartment building I find myself on one of the many busy, bustling streets of Paris. Sirens sound as police cars swerve through traffic, a melange of languages permeates the airwaves in great planes of sound as crowds of tourists idle in front of shop windows, and the normal bangs and clashes of street cleaners sweeping their way through an abandoned marketspace ring through the air. As I make my way down the street I often find myself trapped between quickly moving Parisian businesspeople and the slowly stumbling tourists. The stop-and-go nature of the whole thing is more nerve-wracking than one would imagine!

So as time has worn on, I've begun to search out the little corners and tiny streets distributed sparsely throughout the madness. I like to sit in these tiny impassable streets, slightly removed from the cacaphony, and read a book as the smells of the city woft overhead. Perfumes from flowers in the windowsill above float gently down towards me and the savory scents of cooking vegetables and meats from lunch seem to curl around in the spaces between the apartments. I like to glance up at the tranquil, curtained windows of these apartments and imagine how many tiny living compartments exist in this city, and how many people must cook and sleep and carry out their lives in them.I like to think that sometimes, maybe, just perhaps, one of these lunchtime cooks is preparing the oh-so-famous French plate of ratatouille! It's certainly not the most exciting of dishes, and even though every chef that I talk to here seems to have a "special" recipe of his or her own, the majority of ratatouilles that I've seen are pretty much the same. There's no other way to describe it except a colorful array of vegetables set to simmer in a pot with some oil for an hour or two.So I tried a version of my own. It's great as an accompaniment to meat or as the center of a fritata...

Ratatouille

1 eggplant, sliced into half-moon pieces
2 zucchinis, ditto
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 medium-sized shallot, diced
a good handful of cherry tomatoes
a handful of chopped parsley

Heat a good glug of olive oil in a deep pan over medium heat, add the eggplant with some salt and a bit of water and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove the eggplant and do the same with the zucchini. Remove the zucchini as well, then cook the garlic and shallot until the shallot is translucent. Add the pre-cooked zucchini and eggplant and the handful of tomatoes. Here's the fun part, squish the tomatoes gently with a spoon as you stir the vegetables. Add a bit of water, cover and cook for about 40 minutes to an hour.... you want to check on things and add either water or oil every so often until things are sufficiently cooked-down. At the very end add the chopped parsley.

Serve alongside a main, or with a poached egg on top!

Bon Appetit!