Recipe: Ratatouille!
I have a plot in my neighborhood community garden where we’re currently growing lots of tomatoes, eggplants, sweet peppers and zucchini. Ratatouille is a fantastic way to use up all of those ingredients at their summery peak! It’s a delicious vegetable stew that originated in the south of France, and my partner Niles has gotten very good at making it.
There are generally two ways to cook ratatouille: the first is the looser, more rustic version here, and the second is a really gorgeous “layered” version, which you get with meticulously arranged thin mandoline slices of each vegetable. It’s beautiful, and was basically invented for the Pixar movie by Chef Thomas Keller! We typically do the rustic version at home, because it’s easier, and also because the mandoline slicer thirsts for blood and don’t you ever forget it.
In other news:
Andrew Jangigian was kind enough to mention me in his newsletter a few weeks back, and I know a good number of people reading this are here because of him! In a fun coincidence, I had been studying his recipe for matnakash bread, because I’m about to go teach a recipe comics workshop in Yerevan, Armenia. I tried my hand at matnakash this week, and it came out beautifully!
My oven probably should have been a little hotter, and I probably chickened out and took it out a little early, but it was absolutely delicious, with incredible texture. Highly recommend this recipe, and also Andrew’s newsletter!
Shameless self promotion:
I have added a kolache design to my Threadless shop. ^_^
Upcoming things:
September 20-October 4: I’ll be in Yerevan! This is a long shot, but if you’re reading this and you live in Armenia, email me your favorite restaurant, I want all the recommendations. ^_^
October 11: I will be leading a recipe comics workshop at the Logan Square Library in Chicago!
October 18: I will be exhibiting at SLICE in St. Louis!
October 24: I’ll be in Madison signing books and speaking at the Wisconsin Book Festival!
December 6: I’ll be speaking on a panel and selling books at Sulzer Regional Library in Chicago!
What I’m into lately:
I’m about halfway through Chuck Tingle’s newest book, Lucky Day and loving it. It’s bonkers in all the best ways, and it’s made me laugh or gasp out loud more than once. It feels like the very best episodes of X-Files or Fringe, a delightful mix of creepy, funny, and deeply human, and it’s got me on the edge of my seat. Highly recommend!
What Toki’s into lately:
He loves these fuzzy worm toys so much - he’s already destroyed two of them! >_<
