Grilled Ratatouille
Equipment:
- basting brush
- large bamboo skewers, a whole package
- grill
- long tongs
- large serving platter with sides to hold in the juices, or a large shallow bowl
- cutting board and knife
Ingredients:
Anything you'd put in a ratatouille, really. Cooks choice. Shop as close to cooking time as is feasible. Let the veggies in the market dictate the final ingredient list. They'll talk to you, call out to you, "Put me in the recipe, I'm really fresh and flavorful right now!" [sideways glance] I'm not the only one who can hear vegetables talking to me, am I?
The main players are:
- eggplant, any or multiple varieties
- zucchini
- yellow squash (Good way to use up the baseball bats growing in the garden. Just trim out the seeds.)
- mushrooms (I like plain ole' buttons, halved or quartered if large.)
- onions
- Roma tomatoes
- bell peppers, any bright color
- chiffonade of basil, lots
The Baste:
- olive oil, as much as you're willing to use
- chopped garlic, lots
- chopped parsley
- salt and pepper
Preparation:
Cut up all the ingredients except the tomatoes into about 1-inch cubes. Keep all vegetable varieties separate, don't mix them up. Combine a generous quantity of olive oil, garlic, chopped parsley and salt and pepper, to make the baste.
Sit your volunteers (with washed hands) down around the picnic table. Pour them a glass of something suitable, and set them to skewering the vegetables, only one kind on a skewer. This is important, only one kind of veggie on a skewer, so that they cook evenly. Pack the cubes onto the skewer as full as you can. The cubes will shrink as they cook. This project will take awhile, as a couple of diced globe eggplants and onions make a surprising number of cubes.
Roma tomatoes require a special technique. Pretend that the tomatoes are the rungs of a ladder made with two skewers. This configuration allows you to easily turn the tomatoes over on the grill. With only one skewer, the hot tomatoes uncooperatively just roll around instead of toasting nicely on both sides.
Cooking:
You can start cooking skewers right away, or wait until they are all done and then cook. Pack the skewers pretty tightly over hot coals or on a pre-heated gas grill. Begin basting the skewers as they cook. Turn, baste and grill, turn, baste and grill, monitoring the skewers for doneness according to your liking. The onions take a long time.
As the vegetables are done, sweep the cubes off the skewers with your tongs into the platter. Sprinkle judiciously with basil, which will wilt in the heat from the vegetables.
When the tomato ladders are done, skins split and heated through is enough, push them onto your cutting board, dice them, then sweep them and their warm juices into the rest of the vegetables in your platter. Stir the vegetables as they've cooked, in order to mingle the flavors.
The vegetables do not need to be cooked in any particular order. Just mix 'em up and have fun cooking. Wield those tongs with flourish, baste with abandon, at least until you run out of olive oil, and enjoy putting on a grilling show!
The aroma of the gradually cooked vegetables, garlic and basil, is irresistable. You'll need those long tongs not only for the grill, but to keep curious fingers out of the platter until you're ready to serve. Of course, you get to taste for seasoning.
If you are lucky, you'll have some grilled ratatouille leftover for the refrigerator, and lunch the next day. Doesn't happen often, unfortunately. I like this recipe much better than stovetop ratatouille, which seems watery by comparison.
This recipe is suitable for any La Festa al Fresco at which there is a grill. Enjoy, and thanks to Mr. Sinnes for a tried and true great idea.
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