Ratatouille Redux

Do you like Pixar? What a silly question, of course you do! Everyone likes Pixar! While there are the super famous ones everyone knows about, like Up and Toy Story and whatnot, they've made other good movies that less people have seen, like Ratatouille. And it's a shame that less people have seen this adorable movie, because it's a good Pixar movie with an uplifting message, but mostly because it focuses on delicious food. And that movie is the inspiration for this dish.

Ratatouille is usually a sort of stew-like dish of heart veggies in a tomato sauce, which can be kinda heavy and lack-luster. But this is a more delicate dish that still retains all the delicious flavors of the original.

Also, as a disclaimer, this recipe is blatantly taken from Smitten Kitchen with pretty much no alterations, because Smitten Kitchen is a fantastic source for good recipes. I highly recommend you check it out.

Also, another disclaimer, the pictures accompanying this recipe might be a little misleading, because I made a few adjustments. First, I put in a tomato (because it was about to go bad. If you're in a similar situation, try it out). Also, I ended up with way too much veggie slices, so I made a double layer instead of just one. So don't be discouraged if your dish doesn't look like the photos. It will be just as tasty (and more true to the movie recipe). But then again, if you end up with way to many veggies, like I did, know that this is a viable option (as long as your dish is deep enough).

And this isn't really a disclaimer as much as a bonus: this recipe is vegan! (which I guess shouldn't be surprising since it is composed pretty much solely of veggies)

Pixar Ratatouille

1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomato sauce (you can use whatever kind of tomato sauce you want. As usual, I used whatever I had lying around)
1 small eggplant (I used a bunch of little heirloom eggplants that I got from Verrill Farm, because they were so cute)
2 small zucchinis
1 long red bell pepper
3 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375.

Pour the tomato sauce into the bottom of your baking dish (it should be around 8"x11", but use whatever you have that's around that size). Sprinkle in the onions and garlic and stir in with ~1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Slice all of the veggies as thin as possible (if you're lucky enough to own a mandoline, this is a perfect time to use it).

Arrange these veggie slices on top of the tomato sauce in layers. You can do them in rows, or if you really want to emulate the movie dish, you can make concentric rings with the veggies. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with another tablespoon of olive oil. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs by running your fingers down the stem from top to bottom. Sprinkle the thyme leaves over the top of the veggies.

Put in the oven for 45 - 55 minutes. The veggies should still have some structure to them, but they should obviously be cooked.

You can serve this with rice, couscous, crusty toast, or whatever you little heart desires.

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Continuing in my theme of reviewing critically acclaimed movies for you guys, today I'm gonna tell you about Searching for Sugarman.

This movie is a documentary about a 1970's musician called Rodriguez. Never heard of him? Not surprising. He was a massive failure in the US, but a huge success in South Africa (he was more popular than Elvis and the Rolling Stones). However, due to political censoring and other various reasons, Rodriguez was a complete enigma to all of his fans in South Africa. No one knew who he was or wehre he was from, or even how he died. There were many conflicting stories about how Rodriguez died, the most gruesome story being that he set himself on fire on stage at a gig. All of this mystery led to some fans starting to investigate the truth about Rodriguez, and they find more than they could ever imagine.

Now, I don't want you to get discouraged by the fact that this movie is a documentary (I know lots of people think that documentaries are boring). It's very visually interesting, (though I wish they utilized more of the original animations they occasionally used to portray Rodriguez from the past) and the soundtrack is lovely (which shouldn't be surprising, since it's composed entirely of Rodriguez' songs).

And, of course, you can't get past the fact that the story that unfolds is so fantastic it is hard to believe. But even when the main mystery is solved ("How did Rodriguez die?"), many more questions remain unanswered.

And one little detail that perfectly encapsulated the continuing enigma of this film is the fact that there is never an image of Rodriguez without sunglasses, except for one scene where you can see his entire face after the main mystery has been solved. I think that's a wonderful visual representation of the mystery of the film.

So if you are interested in 70's music or crazy real life mytseries or just like watching good movies, you should definitely check out Searching for Sugarman.