Southern Style Skillet Ratatouille - a simple stew of diced vegetables, made with bacon drippings, the Trinity of Southern Cooking, zucchini and summer squash, tomato, eggplant, okra and fresh herbs.
Southern Style Skillet Ratatouille
Most folks these days seem to associate ratatouille with the Disney movie of the same name, and many may only know it from that. It actually is a real Mediterranean dish, most closely associated with France and said to have originated in Nice. The word perhaps comes from "touiller" and translates to mean something akin to "toss or stir."
Traditionally ratatouille is simply zucchini and tomatoes, with peppers, garlic and onion, sometimes sliced, sometimes cut into chunks. Somewhere along the way, eggplant was included, and though it wasn't always a part of the traditional dish, it's pretty much expected these days. I decided to make it with a dice of a variety of summer vegetables that we love in the south.
The difference between dicing and chopping, is that chopped veggies have very little continuity in size and cut. When sauteed, they sort of just melt into the skillet, generally as intended. Diced vegetables, on the other hand, are uniformly square, and hold their texture more once sauteed, resulting in a completely different texture and flavor from sliced or even chunks of vegetables.
With a dish like this, a food processor sure comes in handy and I am loving this dicing kit attachment I picked up for my KitchenAid awhile back. I can hardly wait to bust up on it for some soups and stews, when fall and winter weather arrives in the Deep South. I don't know about you, but I'm certainly ready for it after this loooong, hot summer that seems to keep going on, forever and ever and ever and ever...
Although I'm a huge fan of olive oil and I do use it all the time, I've subbed in some bacon drippings and butter for it here in the spirit of the south, and used the full out Trinity of Southern Cooking - sweet onion, bell pepper and celery.
Of course, summer squash is common in the south so we've used both summer squash and zucchini, along with tomato, a little eggplant and some okra, if you like, along with some fresh herbs, though dried will stand in just fine if that's what you have.
Truth is, this is a very versatile dish, so use whatever your own favorite vegetables are. I love this side dish - ratatouille, with a little southern flair! Fry the bacon, saute the trinity, add in the other cubed veggies, a splash of wine, some seasonings and fresh herbs. Done and done! Here's the basics.
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