a splendid repast

yesterday morning i jumped out of bed even before the alarm went off—i was excited to be taking a day off (more or less; i still did some email) to get ready for our friday evening company—our friends anne marie and sam were coming to visit overnight, yay.

i was looking forward to doing some cooking—i hadn’t really spent serious time in my kitchen since arriving home from my big trip and i was jonesin’. as soon as the coffee pot was on and the previous night’s dishes put away, i went out to the garden to see what i could pick and found eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and basil.

i washed those up and added them to what i had in the fridge, including a couple of squash we had to purchase (grrr) and the total looked like it would make a decent pot of ratatouille.

i started by roasting the tomatoes lightly with garlic cloves, olive oil, and pepper (you can also cook the tomatoes on top of the stove). not too long in the oven, though—i like ratatouille best when the vegetables retain that fresh, almost raw taste. in fact, it’s a dish that i don’t care for nearly as much when cooked from supermarket produce in winter; it’s just not the same. the fresher all the ingredients are, the better—it makes a remarkable difference.

while the tomatoes roasted a bit, i chopped everything else into chunks

i keep the chunks fairly big for this dish because again, i don’t like any of the ingredients to get overcooked. plus, nice chunky vegetable texture has such great mouth feel and full flavor. this is a good dish for a crowd because it has so few ingredients, requires so little cooking, and can/should be made ahead.

out of the oven, the tomatoes get pureed, then put into a pot with some sauteéd garlic to simmer. one by one, i brown each vegetable separately and quickly, starting with the eggplant, then add to the pot to simmer with the tomatoes. i end with the summer squash and set that aside.

i bring the pot to a simmer and let it cook for maybe 20 minutes, then add the squash and season to taste with a few basil leaves, salt and pepper. now i let it cook until the eggplant is tender—maybe 10 or 20 minutes longer; the vegetables should be cooked, but still a little crunchy to the tooth. off heat, adjust seasoning, add a little olive oil and a handful more of basil; the cooking is done.

i’m sure i don’t have to state the obvious, but the fresh basil is practically mandatory for this dish—it does provide the defining flavor.
now is the important part; it needs to sit for several hours to let the flavors meld—preferably overnight.

this provides the perfect interlude to visit with company and/or knit. i had time for a long-ish bike ride and shower before anne marie and sam were expected, so i headed out into a beautiful afternoon.

when they arrived, sam found a comfy spot in our library to do some gaming on the big TV while anne marie and i visited. she brought these gorgeous york peaches, wow.

i learned a new thing about peaches from her—to prevent them going bad, keep them from touching each other when they are in the same container. who knew??

anne marie had a pair of fallberry mitts she was knitting and i worked on the back of my rene sweater

between the afternoon knitting and the evening knitting to follow, i got quite a bit done—i’m not far at all now from the underarm bindoff and you know after that point, it’s progress is really going to speed up.

soon enough, beckie and barb arrived with their knitting and we opened some specialty beers to salute our friday evening get together. after one bottle, i got back in the kitchen to get the food on the table.

when reheating the ratatouille for serving, bring it just to a simmer and warm the pot through; don’t overheat it or the vegetables will get soggy. add a couple or several more handfuls of fresh basil just before serving, or better yet, in the plates. we like to eat ours served over orzo with olive oil and parsley.

everyone brought something to add to the table—beckie brought salad and barb brought something i’d been craving all summer but hadn’t eaten yet—sweet corn, YUM.

i dove right into my ear of corn before i touched any other food, mmmm.

we were a happy, happy group of eaters, alright.
anne marie also provided dessert of homemade brownies and ice cream, but it was too dark to take a picture by the time we got to eat them.

however, there were still a few left this morning and i snapped a photo cuz i know you all love brownies, yes??

now, THAT’S the way to do friday evening—if it was up to me it’d be like this every week . . .