Ratatouille--a great dish & a great building block!
“Leftover.” Sigh.
It’s one of those sad words like “also-ran,” “almost” and “runner-up.” Okay, but not as attractive as something else. While some foods are actually much better the second, third and fourth days, the sound of “leftovers for dinner” just doesn’t inspire.
That’s why I like the French term, rechauffe, which means to re-chafe or reheat. Let’s face it, everything sounds better in French.
“Honey, what are we having for dinner tonight?”
“Oh, it’s a lovely new French dish I’ve discovered called rechauffe.”
“Sounds great!”
Sometimes even ratatouille requires a little help when we’ve had too many servings of it. Since it’s a labor intensive dish, I tend to make it in really large quantities. It freezes and reheats just fine, but at times I need to do more than reheat–I need to reinvent.
This was the case last night when I was facing a large pot of ratatouille and the bits and pieces of other meals.
pastatouille?!
So I pulsed some of the ratatouille in the food processor to a rough chop, sautéed some onions, chopped some sun-dried tomatoes and mixed them all together on the stove top to heat. I also reheated some roasted garbanzo beans and garlic, and poured it all on top of a bowl of whole wheat spaghetti. Then I plunged a slice of fresh buffalo mozzarella into it and let it soften.
Himself loved it. I loved it. Mission accomplished.
Some of the best dishes simply have no recipe and are difficult to reproduce. Dishes like this are one-of-a-kind. Happy accidents. While I seldom get to enjoy such things more than once, they inspire me to keep experimenting, to see what great new dish I can devise. They remind me that leftovers don’t have to be ho-hum. They can be the promise of another great meal.
Plunging buffalo mozzarella….I love it!