{"id":10342,"date":"2012-10-12T19:40:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T19:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/?p=10342"},"modified":"2013-03-14T14:20:58","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:20:58","slug":"ratatouille-au-gratin-paired-with-chianti-or-pinot-blanc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/ratatouille-au-gratin-paired-with-chianti-or-pinot-blanc\/","title":{"rendered":"Ratatouille au Gratin Paired with Chianti or Pinot Blanc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ratatouille au Gratin<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

How to Cook Two Meals at Once<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hosting adults is one thing. Hosting families is another. While children aren\u2019t exactly demanding when it comes to decoration and music, they can be extremely picky with food.<\/p>\n

This typically leaves you with two options: \u201cdumb down\u201d your entire meal to accommodate everyone or make an entirely different meal for the kids. But here\u2019s a third, far-better alternative: a ratatouille au gratin for the adults, which turns into a delicious spaghetti sauce for the kids.<\/p>\n

The beauty of this meal is that you are minimizing time and effort spent, while maximizing the chances of pleasing your guests. The ratatouille is delicious, and the inclusion of crowd-pleasers, like Canadian Parmesan and Mozzarella, makes a spaghetti sauce the kids will love.<\/p>\n

Since my food-pairing talents involve mostly wine (I\u2019m not a licensed juice-box specialist yet), I\u2019m only going to suggest pairings for the adults enjoying the ratatouille.<\/p>\n

If you are a red drinker, I would go for a very dry, slightly spicy Chianti with a nice acidity, such as a medium-bodied Frescobaldi Castiglioni Chianti<\/strong><\/a> DOCG or a Ruffino Chianti<\/strong> DOCG. As for white wine, avoid big, full-bodied wines. Instead, complement the stew with a slightly spicy wine, such as a dry Konzelmann Pinot Blanc<\/strong><\/a> VQA or a mineral Trumpour\u2019s Mill Pinot Gris<\/strong> VQA, both local Canadian wines.<\/p>\n

Happy hosting!<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 tbsp (15 ml) butter
\n1 small onion, chopped \"\"<\/a>
\n2 garlic cloves, chopped
\n1 cup (250 ml) butternut squash, finely diced
\n1 zucchini, finely diced
\n\u00bd red bell pepper, finely diced
\n1 cup (250 ml) mushrooms, quartered
\n\u00bd eggplant, finely diced
\nsalt
\nfreshly ground pepper
\n2 plum tomatoes, finely diced
\n2 tbsp (30 ml) fresh basil, chopped
\n\u00bc (1 ml) to 1\/2 tsp (2 ml) chili peppers, crushed
\n2 cups (500 ml) cooked rice, pasta, millet, quinoa or spaghetti squash
\n1\u00bd cups (375 ml) Canadian Mozzarella, grated
\n\u00bc cup (60 ml) Canadian Parmesan, grated<\/p>\n

Instructions:<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a saucepan, melt butter and brown onion, garlic and squash for 5 minutes. Add zucchini, bell pepper, mushrooms and eggplant. Cook 5\u20137 minutes. Season. Incorporate tomatoes and half of basil. Turn off heat and let rest with lid on for 1 minute. Add crushed chili peppers.<\/p>\n

Pour over cooked rice, pasta, millet, quinoa or spaghetti squash. Top with Mozzarella and Parmesan, brown in oven and serve with remaining basil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ratatouille au Gratin for Kids\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 small zucchini, finely diced
\n\u00bd red bell pepper, finely diced
\n\u00bd cup (125 ml) mushrooms, quartered
\n1 small eggplant, finely diced
\n1 plum tomato, finely diced
\n1 tbsp (15 ml) fresh basil, chopped
\n\u00be cup (180 ml) tomato or vegetable juice
\n\u00bc cup (60 ml) tomato paste
\n\u00bd (125 ml) to 1 cup (250 ml) cooked rice or pasta
\n1\u00bd cups (375 ml) Canadian Mozzarella, grated
\nsalt
\nfreshly ground pepper<\/p>\n

Instructions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a saucepan, melt butter and brown onion, garlic and squash for 5 minutes. Add zucchini, bell pepper, mushrooms and eggplant. Cook 5\u20137 minutes. Season. Incorporate tomato and basil. Turn off heat and let rest with lid on for 1 minute.<\/p>\n

Pur\u00e9e the ratatouille in a food processor or blender. Add tomato or vegetable juice and tomato paste. Blend until it resembles spaghetti sauce. Pour over cooked rice or pasta.<\/p>\n

Top with Mozzarella and melt in oven.<\/p>\n

Tips<\/strong>
\nServing suggestion: Pour over a slice of toasted bread instead of rice or pasta.<\/p>\n

Variations:<\/strong>
\nCanadian Mild Cheddar, Swiss cheese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ratatouille au Gratin How to Cook Two Meals at Once Hosting adults is one thing. Hosting families is another. While children aren\u2019t exactly demanding when it comes to decoration and music, they can be extremely picky with food. This typically leaves you with two options: \u201cdumb down\u201d your entire meal to accommodate everyone or make an entirely different meal for the kids. But here\u2019s a third, far-better alternative: a ratatouille au gratin for the adults, which turns into a delicious spaghetti sauce for the kids. The beauty of this meal is that you are minimizing time and effort spent, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,10,135,175,187,121,140,148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wine-cheese-pairing","category-food-wine-pairing","category-pasta-wine-food-wine-pairing","category-recipe-pasta","category-recipe-vegetable","category-wine-vegetables","category-wine-mozzarella","category-wine-parmesan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10342"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11079,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10342\/revisions\/11079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nataliemaclean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}