Ratatouille for French Inspired Birthday Lunch

Trying to serve more vegetables that your family will actually enjoy? Try this kid-friendly ratatouille dish. It is a healthy combo of thinly sliced summer veggies and so easy to prepare. Call the kids into the kitchen and get cooking!

Our grandkids love the computer-animated comedy film, Ratatouille, produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney. So after seeing me serve this dish for a friend-lunch, the kids wanted to make it themselves. It was a fun cooking activity during a recent sleepover and they not only enjoyed the ratatouille with the same name as the movie, but they also felt accomplished. 

French inspired

Ratatouille is a French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice, and sometimes referred to as ratatouille niçoise. With many methods of preparation, it is basically a recipe of sliced eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper and fresh herbs arranged over tomato sauce and baked until tender.

Served to friends

Birthdays are fun, most of the time anyway. Celebrating birthdays with girlfriends is always fun. It is a chance to catch up and laugh about getting older, because laughing is better than complaining. Last week a few friends gathered to celebrate a birthday by having lunch together at my house. Ratatouille was part of a French-themed menu I planned and we pretended we were in Paris!

How to make ratatouille 

Two of our grandchildren came the day after our lunch for a sleepover and they tasted what was left of the Ratatouille. Was I surprised that they liked it and wanted to make more.

I made a few changes to the original recipe so we could compare and decide the version they liked best. Kids love to cook and were so excited to make the recipe themselves. 

Later that evening, we all curled up on the sofa to watch Disney’s Ratatouille movie and enjoyed the warmth of the first fire of the season in the wood burning stove. Ratatouille and popcorn makes a kid happy. Who would had thought.

The original recipe uses a can of tomato paste mixed with water and produces a thick, rich, bold tomato flavor with a deep color.  We tried substituting an 8-ounce can of tomato sauce for the tomato paste and did not add water.  We also tossed in a few thinly sliced mushrooms because I had some in the refrigerator that needed to be used.  As expected, it was more mild-flavored but still tasted good. After tasting both versions over and over, we finally concluded we liked the original recipe a just little bit better.

Whether you are planning a fancy lunch, need a delicious side dish or want to cook with your kids, give Ratatouille a try.

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 Ratatouille

•  1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
•  1/2 onion, chopped
•  1/4 cup minced garlic
•  1 tablespoon olive oil
•  3/4 cup water
•  salt and ground black pepper to taste
•  1 small eggplant, trimmed and very thinly sliced
•  1 zucchini, trimmed and very thinly sliced
•  1 yellow squash, trimmed and very thinly sliced
•  1 red bell pepper, cored and very thinly sliced
•  1 yellow bell pepper, cored and very thinly sliced
•  3 tablespoons olive oil, or to taste
•  1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or to taste
•  3 tablespoons mascarpone cheese (optional)

• French Onion Soup
• Endive, Pear & Roquefort Salad
• Herb Baked Eggs
• Chicken Braid
• Profiteroles