LA RATATOUILLE

Ratatouille is a traditional Provencal dish based on stewed vegetables, the full name of the dish, originally from Nice, is ratatouille niçoise.

The word ratatouille comes from the Occitan "ratatolha", similar to the French "touiller" which means "to stir". It was originally a dish for poor farmers, prepared in the summer with fresh vegetables. The original ratatouille niçoise did not contain aubergines as they were not available at the same time of the year as the other vegetables; the original ingredients of traditional ratatouille are tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, onions and garlic.
French ratatouille can be served as a dish in its own right (accompanied by rice, potatoes, or plain French bread), most frequently served as a side dish.



The dish is clearly inspired by the Disney Pixar animated film Ratatouille (which plays on the assonance of the word with "rat", being the protagonist of the film Rémy, a mouse). To improve their knowledge of cooking during the production of the film, director Brad Bird and producer Brad Lewis spent many hours attending cooking classes in the French Laundry restaurant of Thomas Keller, who invented the recipe for the variant of ratatouille presented in the movie.