Summer Ratatouille & Sea Bass | Recipeish | Gustus Vitae
- Yield: Serves 4.
- Time Estimate: About 2 hours, including 60 unattended.
- Storage Notes: Can be kept, refrigerated, for up to 3 days.
- Difficulty: Easy, but be very careful with the mandolin.
Ratatouille done right is a beautiful thing, and when pairing with seared sea bass and a big glass of ice cold sauvignon blanc, well, that's quite a meal you've got yourself there. The ratatouille itself is surprisingly hearty, so serve a smaller portion than you'd think, and reserve some leftovers for tomorrow - they'll make a lovely cold soup when pureed with a bit of cream and veggie stock.
Ingredients
Ratatouille
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- 6 Medium sized Zucchini
- 6 Medium sized Yellow squash
- 3 Tbs French Onion Seasoning
- 3 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 Whole tin Taste of Provence
- 1 Whole tin Taste of Bordeaux
- 10 Tbs Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 White onion
- 1 Eggplant
- 8 Cloves of Garlic
- A Good sized handful of Basil
- 1 Can of crushed Tomatoes (28 oz)
Sea Bass & Lemon Garlic Sauce
- 2 Large fillets of Sea bass
- 5 Tbs Cornstarch
- 2 Lemons
- 4 Tbs Extra virgin olive oil
- 8 Cloves of Garlic
- 3 Tbs French Onion Seasoning
- 3 Tbs Neutral cooking oil (we use canola)
- 2 Big Glasses of sauvignon blanc or similar - one for you and one for the pan
- 1 Small handful of basil for garnish
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Rinse tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and zucchini, and using a mandolin, slice into 1/8" pieces, saving the ends. You want them all to be roughly the same height, so trim as needed and save trimmings with the ends. Cover and reserve.
- Mince onion and garlic, and bring a pressure cooker up to medium high heat. Add in 5 tbs extra virgin olive oil, and sauté onions and garlic for 3-4 minutes, or until garlic begins to brown.
- Pour in crushed tomatoes and veggie ends and trimmings, sprinkle in 1 Tbs each of French Onion Seasoning and Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, and half of each tin of Taste of Provence and Taste of Bordeaux.
- Cover pressure cooker, bring up to 2 bars, and cook for 30 minutes.
- Carefully release steam, and use an immersion blender to puree the sauce, adding more French Onion Seasoning if desired.
- In a large fish pan or similar, spread sauce evenly.
- Working in a repeating pattern, arrange slices of cut veggies in a circle, completely filling the pan, and wedging in veggies where you can to make it as snug as possible.
- In a small bowl, whisk together remaining olive oil, French Onion Seasoning, Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Taste of Bordeaux, and Taste of Provence, then brush onto the top of ratatouille.
- Loosely cover with foil, and pop in the oven for 40 minutes.
- While this is going on, prep your sauce.
- Bring a non reactive sauce pan up to medium high heat, and add roughly chopped garlic, olive oil, and French Onion Seasoning. Cut one lemon in quarters and shallow fry, flesh side down, for 2-3 minutes without moving
- Remove lemon, squeeze in the juice of the remaining lemon, and deglaze with white wine. Lower temp to its lowest setting, cover, and reserve.
- At the 40 minute mark, remove the foil, rotate the pan, and cook for a further 20 minutes.
- Pat dry sea bass, and divide the 2 steaks in half. Roll in cornstarch, then bring a cast iron pan up to medium high heat, adding in the neutral cooking oil as you do. Sear the steaks for 3 minutes on each side, then pop in the oven alongside the ratatouille so they finish cooking at the same time - around a further 5 minutes.
- Remove ratatouille and sea bass, plating immediately. Chiffonade basil, garnish with seared lemons and basil, drizzle lemon garlic sauce over sea bass, serve, and devour.