CONFIT BYALDI

Here we have Confit Byaldi/Ratatouille by Michel Guérard/Thomas Keller. The famous French cook Michel Guérard modernized traditional French recipes and made them more modern and lighter. He was one of the founder of the Nouvelle Cuisine. Famous his books “La grande cuisine minceur” in 1976 and “La cuisine gourmande” in 1978. Thomas Keller adapted this recipe and made some little changes for the Disney&Pixar movie Ratatouille. For example he added the piperade to this dish.

What a beautiful dish and I am surprised how fan-shaped vegetable slices changed this french classic so much. Serve solo or with lamb or any kind of meat/fish you like.


Ingredients

Piperade:

2 red pepper ( or 1 red and 1 yellow)
1 clove garlic
250g cherry tomatoes (or 3 tomatoes peeled)
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
1 sprig flat-leaf parsley ( I didn’t use)
1 onion
Olive oil


Vegetables:

1-2 zucchini (sliced in 1/16-inch rounds)
1-2 eggplants (sliced in 1/16-inch rounds)
1 yellow zucchini sliced (me: 1 yellow tomato)
3-4 tomatoes (sliced in 1/16-inch rounds)
2 cloves garlic
Thyme leaves
Olive oil


Note: much depends on the size of the vegetables and your oven-proof dish, so it could be possible that 1 zucchini and 1 eggplant is enough. The original recipe by Thomas Keller serves the Ratatouille with a vinaigrette of olive oil&balsamic vinegar and herbs. In my view it is not necessary, as the piperade contains enough delicious liquid.



Preparation

  1. Heat the oven to 250 C / 450 F or even better a grill. Place the red peppers under the grill or put in the oven until the skin is black. Use a baking tray with parchment paper.

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2. Remove the skin from the peppers. BTW, I used Turkish peppers which have more flavor than the Dutch peppers. Turkis peppers are different in shape.

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3. Cook a chopped onion/shallot in olive oil. Then add roughly chopped peppers and tomatoes incl. garlic and herbs. Cook for 10min on low heat with lid.

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4. Turn offf the heat after 10min and let it rest for 30-60min. Remove bay leaf and sprigs. After it cooled down put it in a food-processor and mix.

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5. Now drizzle it in a oven-proof dish

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6. Arrange the vegetable slices on top

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7. Drizzle with chopped garlic, thyme leaves and a good dash of olive oil.

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8. Cover with lid or parchment paper and alu foil and put in the pre-heated oven by 140 C or 280 F for 2h

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9. After 2h remove the lid and put it under a salamander/grill for 10-15min or in the oven by 250 C or 500 F until it is nicely colored.

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10. Utterly delicious. I assume it will taste even better on day 2. But unfortunately nothing left.

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2 Likes

Yes, have made this several times, lovely dish.