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Top tips for brilliant ratatouille

Vegetables are often the silent deputy of a meal, and they are rarely given the chance to
shine on their own. Sometimes vegetables don’t taste as terrific as they should, simply
because they are cooked incorrectly. With a little kitchen savvy and purchasing know-how,
you’ll be preparing delicious veggie dishes in a snap.

Ratatouille, apart from being Franck’s favourite animated movie of all time, is an exquisite
Provençal vegetable stew that embodies the essence of southern French cuisine: colourful,
flavoursome, textured and rich. It can be eaten hot with various meat or fish dishes, but also
on its own with a little salad of peppery leaves on the side. It’s an extremely versatile dish, is
easy to scale up for crowds and is utterly delicious.

Shop intelligently
It is important to be selective when you buy vegetables, fruits and salad ingredients. First,
you need to follow the seasons. Ingredients in season are plentiful and therefore less
expensive. Try to ensure that you buy locally grown produce. Not only will they be ripe, but
they’ll taste superior to imported goods, which are often picked green to last longer,

resulting in a lot of flavour loss.

As a general rule, vegetables should appear perky and fresh, firm and bright. Avoid anything
wrinkled, unless it’s a granadilla. Also give bruised or soft vegetables a skip, and rely on your
sense of smell to gauge the ripeness of fruits.

Cook the ingredients separately to save time
If you add all the ingredients to the pot raw, you’ll end up slowly simmering them for up to
two hours until they reached the perfect consistency. To save you time, rather use all the

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