Ratatouille Dinner

Yesterday, France celebrated Bastille Day so we decided to watch Ratatouille!  We had a fabulous French dinner!  

For dinner we had Remy's Ratatouille, Linguini's Linguini and Clams, a French Baguette and Emile's Cheese, French Wine, and Colette's Creme Brûlée.

Ratatouille
I found this recipe and slightly modified it to fit our needs.

Ingredients:
1 red pepper, halved with the seeds removed
1/2 yellow pepper with the seeds removed
3 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons of Olive oil
1.5 teaspoons of minced garlic, separated 
1/2 cup of finely diced yellow onion
3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of parsley
Kosher salt, to taste
2 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 eggplant
3 roma tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon of thyme 
Ground pepper
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place peppers on foil lined sheet with the cut side down.  Roast for fifteen minutes until it loosens.  Peel and chop finely
2. Combine 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, and the onion in a medium skillet over low heat until soft, about 8 minutes.  
3. Add regular tomatoes, their juices, thyme, and parsley.  Simmer on low heat until little liquid remains, about 10 minutes.  Add peppers.
4. Season to taste and discard herbs
5. Puree in blender and spread on the bottom of baking pan
6. Heat the oven to 275 degrees and using a mandoline, thinly slice zucchini, squash, eggplant and roma tomatoes… don't slice your finger like I did.  
7. Arrange the vegetables over the sauce alternating the slices.
8. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of garlic, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, and 1/8 teaspoon of thyme leaves in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
9. Sprinkle over vegetables and cover with aluminum foil.
10. Cook in the oven for two hours, then remove the foil and cook for 30 more minutes.

11. For vinaigrette, combine 1 tablespoon of the sauce, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, thyme, and salt and pepper.  Drizzle around the vegetables.

Linguini's Linguini with Clams
I found the recipe here. 

Ingredients: 
12 oz of garlic linguini
3 tablespoons of butter
3 cloves of minced garlic
A Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cups of vegetable broth
Kosher salt and pepper
1lb of clams 
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

Instructions:
1. In a large pot, cook pasta according to package instructions
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook
3. Stir in vegetable broth, season with salt and pepper
4. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half, about 2 minutes.  Stir in clams.  Cover and cook until clams open, about 5-8 minutes.
5. Stir in pasta and garnish with parsley

French Baguette and Emile's Cheese

French Wine

Colette's Creme Brûlée

I found a mix to make Creme Brûlée in a box basically and it wasn't authentic but it tasted like smores!   Yum!

If you liked this dinner, check out our Beauty and the Beast dinner.