Confit Byaldi: AKA Ratatouille

1. Home
2. Recipes
3. Confit Byaldi: AKA Ratatouille

Vegetables (if possible use vegetables that are all roughly the same diameter round):

• 1 green zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 Japanese eggplant, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow squash/zucchini, thinly sliced
• 4 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of thyme, about 1/8ish teaspoon
• fine sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Vinaigrette:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• pinch of thyme, about 1/8ish teaspoon
• fine sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Piperade Sauce:

Roasted Peppers: Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Slice the bell peppers in thirds or fourths lengthwise removing the stem, seeds and ribbing from the inside. Place the peppers on a foil lined sheet pan with the outside of the peppers facing up. Place the sheet pan in the oven and roast the peppers for about 15 minutes, until the pepper skin loosens. Turn off the oven for now and remove the peppers, let them rest until cool enough to handle. Peel the skins of the outside of the peppers and discard, then chop up the skinless peppers.

Blanched Tomatoes: Fill a bowl with enough icy water to fully submerge the tomatoes in and set aside. Then fill a pot with enough water to fully submerge the tomatoes in. Bring the pot of water to a boil. Cut a shallow "X" in the tops and bottoms of each tomato then gently place the tomatoes in the boiling water with a large slotted ladle or spoon. Leave the tomatoes in for only a few moments, no longer than a minute but about 30 seconds should suffice. Then remove the tomatoes from the boiling water placing them in the icy water. Let sit for a couple minutes and then remove the tomatoes and peel off the skins and discard, then chop the tomatoes into large bits and place in a bowl saving the juice.

In an 8 to 10 inch skillet combine the extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and chopped onion over low heat until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add the chopped skinless tomatoes and juices, about 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1/2 teaspoon parsley, and 1 bay leaf. Continue to simmer over low heat until very soft but don't brown, about 10 minutes. Then add the peppers and continue to simmer to soften them as well. Season to taste with fine sea salt and ground black pepper then remove the bay leaf and discard. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes or a least cool enough to place in a blender or bowl to be pureed. Puree the piperade sauce and then cover the bottom of your 8 to 10 inch skillet with sauce but make sure you keep at least 1 to 2 tablespoons or so to use later with the vinaigrette. Sprinkle the remaining thyme and parsley over the layer of piperade sauce.

Vegetables:

Thinly slice both zucchinis, eggplant, and roma tomatoes. A mandoline slicer works great for the zucchinis and eggplant but ripe tomatoes will need to be cut with a knife. Organizing your sliced vegetables on a large sheet pan is a big help for the next steps. Note: The Japanese eggplant is slightly smaller than the Chinese variation though either one can be used for this recipe. Both the Japanese and Chinese eggplants have the preferred shape for this recipe as opposed to the much larger/rounder variations.

Pre-heat oven to 275 degrees. Starting at the side of your 8 to 10 inch skillet with the piperade sauce covering the bottom arrange a strip of alternating vegetable slices over the piperade, overlapping so that roughly 1/4 inch of each slice is exposed. I will take a series of vegetable slices and arrange them in my hand by a color pattern like yellow, purple, green, red or if I have a lot of eggplant because they tend to be longer I may go with purple, green, red, purple, yellow, doubling up the eggplant because I have so much more of those slices. Whichever way you decide to arrange the slices continuing with that pattern throughout the entire process makes for a good looking dish. Continue to overlap vegetables all around the pan and until you come back around to where you started, then start another spiral next to the first and so on until the pan is full. You may end up with a small area in the center of the pan that you will need to squeeze in a few more in a tight spiral. You may end up with some vegetables left over. Note: If there are leftover vegetables you can stir fry them in with the vinaigrette.

Mix together the minced garlic, extra virgin olive oil, pinch of thyme and fine sea salt and ground black pepper to taste and then sprinkle over the vegetables in the pan. Cover pan with foil and crimp edges to seal well. Place the pan in the 275 degree pre-heated oven and bake until the vegetables are tender when tested with a paring knife, about 2 hours. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes (lightly cover with foil or parchment cut to size if it starts to brown). If there is excess liquid in pan, place over medium heat on stove until reduced.

Vinaigrette:

Mix together the reserved piperade sauce, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pinch of thyme and fine sea salt and ground black pepper to taste.

To Serve:

Once the vegetables are ready very carefully lift out of the pan and onto a plate guiding them into fan shape or use a round ring mold or deep round cookie cutter and place the vegetables inside until filled, to help retain its shape, and then gently remove the ring. Drizzle vinaigrette around each plated serving.

Confit Byaldi, originally created by French Chef Michel Guérard, is a variation on the traditional French dish ratatouille. "Another beautiful day to create. Bon Appétit" :)

Related Recipes: