Ratatouille is a French Provençal vegetable stew, recently made famous by an adorable Pixar movie. Since I’m moving toward cooking vegetarian during the week (mostly), and the cold warrants some hearty meals, I thought I’d give this one a try. It also happens to be vegan (until you garnish with cheese).

I used this recipe from Epicurious on Tuesday, January 5, 2010. Key ingredients are eggplant, zucchini, onion, green bell pepper, garlic, tomato, and parsley and the whole process took me about 90 minutes of continuous activity.

Helpful additional notes: To peel tomatoes, cut a small slit in the skin and then throw them in boiling water for a few seconds to a minute. They’re ready as soon as the skin starts to split. Believe it or not, I had never peeled a tomato before.

Things I would or did change: In the winter, when tomatoes are less juicy, I would not fully seed the tomatoes. I had trouble getting them to juice. Leaving all the seeds in would make it difficult to boil down to a stew, so next time I’d compromise by doing a lazy job of seeding them (leaving some in). I also served it with grated cheese as a condiment, which worked really well to make it a little more complex, and a side of baguette for sopping up the juices.

Review: This dish isn’t going to win me any presentation prizes (see that green-grayish lump in the pot above), but it was surprisingly tasty. It calls for salt & pepper at several stages, and don’t skimp on any of them – those simple spices did an incredible job of boosting the flavor of the vegetables.

Would I make it again? Yes, for a veggie-loving crowd.