Name: Laurent Gras’s Ratatouille Niçoise
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: Good, fruity olive oil, for drizzling (optional); 10 to 12 fresh basil leaves, chopped; 2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1½-inch (4-cm) pieces, or ½ pound (225 g) tender green beans, cut into about 2-inch (5-cm) pieces (see Note); 1 tablespoon tomato paste (optional); 2½ cups (300 g) grated or briefly pulsed vine-ripened tomatoes (3 to 4 medium-large tomatoes); 1 to 2 teaspoons Maraş pepper or a good pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (plenty of freshly ground black pepper will also suffice); Salt; 1 large onion, halved and sliced into half-moons; 2 to 3 elongated eggplants (about 1½ pounds/680 g total), sliced in strips and cut into 1½-inch (4-cm) cubes; 1 red and 2 green bell peppers, halved, seeded, and cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) dice; 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; Pistou (optional); About ½ cup (120 ml) olive oil

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

By Aglaia Kremezi

Published 2014

About

How perfectly liberating to read the celebrated chef’s description of his mother’s ratatouille! In his beautiful online cookbook, My Provence, Gras gives the recipe for a dish very different from traditional ratatouille. His Ratatouille Niçoise—chosen for the cover of My Provence—is very similar to the Turkish Türlü (tourlou in Greek), a family favorite all over the Mediterranean that relies on the same principle: a medley of cooked vegetables. The rustic version