Pollo alla Ratatouille e le Patate con Rosmarino

We had some guests over, and I decided to do another combination dinner from the Cucchiaio d'Argento cookbook, and Jamie Oliver's Cook With Jamie book. First up was the Pollo alla Ratatouille. This ended up being quite good, though I was really worried about the amount of liquid in the pot to start out. But, alas, it ended up being plenty liquid-y! As for substitutions from the original, they all were health-related or lactose-related. I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts in this dish, but the actual recipe calls for a whole chicken, cut into pieces (skin and all). Your call on that one, since it worked out for me. I substituted margarine (gasp!) for butter as well, so again - you decide.

One more thing - this is a HUGE amount of veg to start out, so depending on the size of the peppers, zucchini, eggplants, and onions, you may need to adjust. I had very large peppers, eggplants, and onions, and small zucchini.

Ingredienti - Ratatouille:
1/4 cup margarine
6 tbsp ITALIAN extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 onion, quartered
2 eggplants, cut into 1-2" cubes
3 zucchini, cut into 1-2" cubes
2 red or yellow bell peppers, halved, seeded, and thickly sliced
4 tomatoes, peeled, quartered, and seeded
1.5 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 garlic cloves, peeled
salt and pepper

Heat half the margarine and half the olive oil in a large stockpot, add the onions, zucchini, eggplants, and bell peppers. Season with salt and pepper and cook over high-heat for a few minutes. Lower the heat, add the tomatoes, cover and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

Heat the remaining margarine and olive oil in another pan, add the chicken and garlic cloves, and cook, stirring and turning frequently, until golden brown all over. Season with salt and pepper and cook (covered) for a further 30 minutes until tender and cooked through. Remove and discard the garlic and add the chicken to the vegetables. Cook a few minutes longer so that the chicken and veg flavors can meld together, then serve.

Like I mentioned, this is a very large amount of food, so you'll have leftovers. This recipe likely serves 6 even though the book says it serves 4. Next up were the rosemary potatoes, which were the super wonderful.

Not only were they tasty, they were easy, and a great compliment to the ratatouille. Here we go:

Ingredienti - Le Patate:
1 lb 6 oz all purpose potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1" cubes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 sprig of fresh rosemary leaves, picked
olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, skin on and smashed*

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Place the potato cubes in a large pan of cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Drain them immediately in a colander and allow them to steam for a few minutes until they dry out a bit. Smash the rosemary leaves in a pestle and mortar.

Heat the olive oil in a roasting pan. Add the garlic cloves*, potatoes, rosemary, salt and pepper. Season and toss together until well-coated. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning the tray every so often, until the potatoes are golden and crispy.

* your guests might find it irritating (as mine did) to pick the garlic skins out of their potatoes, mostly because they don't have a nice texture and they blend in well with the potatoes. You may choose to pick the garlic out before serving the potatotes.

Both of these dishes were very good, and the guests left happy. Both will be made again, and are great ways to get extra veg into your cooking.

As an aside, I served all of this with a crunchy salad made of romaine, carrot strips, green onions, tomato wedges, and avocado - tossed in olive oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, ground sea salt, and ground pepper.

-C