Jono & Jules do food & wine

Not quite true … we found a recipe that promised to be the Ultimate Ratatouille recipe … so we had to test this out … and as Jules is studying the Rhone wines we happened to pick up a Tavel Rose while out in town and it just happened to promise on the back label that it was a perfect match for Ratatouille… we couldn’t believe it!

Guess what – we have found the best Ratatouille we have ever tried (see recipe below)

Jono

So the wine…. great colour and yum scrum strawberry aromas. Low acidity but the strawberryness  balances out the high alcohol (and you don’t notice the alcohol (14%)  too much with the food). Oh yes it works with Ratatouille! The two together more than made up for the horrible wet Dublin weather… we could have been on a beach in the south of France (except we were inside and we could see outside… and it was nasty!).

Julie

The Ultimate Ratatouille (from Angela Nilsen – published in BBC Good Food Magazine in September 2007) – Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 medium onions

5-6 large tomatoes (about 450g)

sprig thyme

sprig rosemary

1 bay leaf

125ml olive oil

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 red peppers

3 medium courgettes

1 large aubergine

1.5 tsp coriander seeds, crushed

coriander and parsley to finish

crusty bread to serve

Method:

Chop the onions (not too finely) and garlic. Heat 2 tbsp oil and sweat in big frying pan until soft but not coloured for 12-15 minutes.

Quarter the tomatoes and cut out their cores. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Wrap the thyme and rosemary in the bay leaf and tie up with string. Add tomatoes and herbs to onions and cook gently for 20-25 minutes, stir every now and again.

Remove the cores and seeds from peppers and cut into one inch pieces. Cut the courgettes and aubergines into similar size pieces.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in pan and fry peppers for about 5 minutes until soft and a little bit browned. Tip into a bowl.

Add 2 tbsp oil and aubergine to the pan and fry for 5 minutes (don’t add more oil even though it gets absorbed).

Tip on top of the the peppers and repeat with the courgettes until they are golden.

Add all to the tomatoes with coriander seeds, cover and barely simmer for about 15 minutes or until everything is tender.

Season and sprinkle chopped coriander and parsley over.

Enjoy!