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Film Released: 2007

Genre:  Animation, Adventure,  Comedy,  Family

Film Directed by:   Brad Bird

Cast/Actors (Voices) include:   Patton Oswalt (Remy),   Ian Holm (Skinner),  Lou Romano (Linguini),  Brian Dennehy (Django),  Peter O'Toole (Anton Ego),   Peter Sohn (Emile) ,  Brad Garrett (Gusteau)
 

Remy is a rat, but no ordinary rat. In fact quite an extraordinary rat. Although he lives in the usual rat colony with his father Django and brother Emile in rural France, his incredible sense of smell and taste leaves him yearning to experiment with food. He has taken to entering the kitchen in the house where the colony resides, to read the now deceased great Parisian Chef  Gusteau's cookery book and watch the his cooking program on TV which he knows always send the owner to sleep.

One day he goes to the kitchen with his bother Emile, to find some saffron however whilst there, the owner wakes up, sees the rats and immediately sets to the task of getting rid of them...with a shotgun. The rats are evicted but Remy gets separated from the rest of the colony and ends up all on his own in the sewers feeling sorry for himself until the ghost of Chef Gusteau urges him to go to the surface. He does and finds he is in Paris right underneath Chef Gusteau's old restaurant which unfortunately fell from grace after a bad review by the food critic Anton Ego and is now being run by Chef Skinner who has who has sold out the Gusteau image by selling microwave food products on the side.

It is at the restaurant that Remy finally gets his chance to cook properly when Linguini, a newly hired garbage boy and unbeknown son of Chef Gusteau,  tries to secretly embellish the soup with disastrous results, until Remy helps him by fixing it. It is served to food critic, Solene LeClaire who loves it and  Linguini is given the chance to cook properly. . . . which of course he can't. So begins an unusual alliance between Remy and Linguini, whereby Remy hides in Linguini's chef's tope and guides his every move by means of pulling on his hair in various ways to control his actions, culminating in the food critic Anton Ego, once again eating at the restaurant and giving it a rave review.

Of course, this film is full of references to ingredients and dishes, but we've chosen the one which was served to Anton Ego which he thought was sublime, namely Ratatouille. . . but no ordinary Ratatouille. In the film the dish is baked rather braised. Here's our version for you to try.

Happy Cooking!

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Baked Spiced Ratatouille  Veg  HT  MC  French  70mins

Serves   4      Hot   Vegetarian  Vegetables  Spices  Main Course  France  Europe

1 Large Ripe Aubergine, ( Egg Plant)  sliced

1 Large Courgette, ( zucchini ) sliced

1 Large Onion, roughly chopped

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves, chopped

800g/28oz Tinned Chopped Tomatoes

The Zest of 1 Orange

½ teasp Cinnamon Powder

1 tbsp finely chopped Fresh Ginger

Salt and Black Pepper

200g/7oz Puff Pastry

1 Egg, beaten

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic, aubergine and courgette and sauté until lightly browned on both sides.

2.  Add the tomatoes, orange zest, cinnamon, ginger, salt and pepper cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 200C, 400F, Gas Mark 6 and lightly grease a shallow oven-proof dish.

4. Roll the pastry out to 5mm/1/4 inch thickness large enough to cover the top of the dish.

5. Transfer the ratatouille into the dish then cover with the pastry pressing it firmly onto the edges of the dish.

6. Brush the pastry with the egg and make a small slit in the centre. Bake for 20-25  minutes until browned and risen. Serve hot.

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