This year, the Burpee Kitchen Garden celebrates culinary traditions from around the world that are practiced here in Maine. Inspired by the experiences and heritage of local chefs, each garden plot highlights the ingredients, stories, and cultural connections that food brings to the table.
Ratatouille: A Celebration of Summer Harvest
Ratatouille originated in Nice, a city in the Provence region of southeastern France. This famous dish’s origins can be found in the rustic stews of the Mediterranean region that combined whatever vegetables were available and abundant during the summer—zucchini, garlic, eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Evolving over time into a more sophisticated dish, it remains a shareable, sun-ripened summer meal.
The name “ratatouille” comes from the regional language Occitan’s word for a vegetable stew “ratatolha”, mixed or perhaps conflated with the French word “touiller”, which means to stir up. Early accounts of this dish describe it undesirably as wet, making the key to the more modern and respected version to make sure your cooking technique prevents too much liquid from building up. Indeed, according to Mamé Clairette, the Niçois grandmother interviewed by Provence historian Bernard Duplessy for his book Cuisine traiditionnelle en pays niçois, it is the little touches like salting the eggplant and zucchini before cooking and using separate pots for the vegetables that “makes the difference between the ratatouille of Nice and the mishmashes of the incompetent.”
No recipe celebrates a summer harvest like ratatouille does. It requires vegetables fresh from the vine, simply but carefully prepared to bring out the individual flavors that blend so harmoniously together. With vegetable garden staples like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, it remains one of the best ways to bring the garden bed to the dining room table.
French Ratatouille Recipe
INGREDIENTS
Ingredients
3 medium eggplants, cut into 2” cubes
4 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise, then cut into 2” pieces
Coarse kosher salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
6 medium yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
4 medium green or red bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into 1” x 2” strips
6 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and quartered
8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
20 leaves of fresh basil
1 bunch fresh parsley, stems trimmed
8 sprigs fresh thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
Steps
Put eggplant and zucchini in 2 separate strainers and toss each with 1 tbsp. salt. Allow to drain for 30 minutes. Blot dry with paper towels.
Heat 2 tbsp. oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Add onions and sauté until translucent, about 15 minutes, then transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Add 2 tbsp. oil to same skillet, increase heat to medium-high, add eggplant, and sauté until golden, about 20 minutes.
Transfer eggplant to a large heavy pot with a cover and spoon a thin layer of onions on top.
Add 2 tbsp. oil to skillet, then add zucchini and saute until golden, about 10 minutes.
Transfer to pot and cover with a thin layer of onions.
Add 1 tbsp. oil to skillet, then add peppers and sauté until edges turn brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to pot and cover with a thin layer of onions.
Add the remaining 1 tbsp. oil to skillet, add tomatoes, garlic, and basil, lightly crushing tomatoes with the back of a fork, and cook until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
Transfer to pot, add remaining onions, parsley, and thyme, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Simmer, partially covered, over low heat, gently stirring occasionally, for 1 ½ hours.
Adjust seasoning, then cook about 30 minutes more.
Recipes carry more than flavors. They connect people to family traditions, cultural heritage, and the plants that make every meal possible. In the Burpee Kitchen Garden, these stories grow side by side.
