How to make a more than decent (actually excellent) Ratatouille in your pressure cooker

From fear and loathing to love and gorging

I am surprised by this post. Ever had a particular dish you have had a mental block about? This is me and ratatouille. We started off very badly and things did not improve for many years, even decades. Until now, in fact. But not so long ago I was asked about how cooking it in a pressure cooker would work - a good opportunity I thought, to put the phobia to bed. This past week is the first time I have ever made ratatouille as an adult, let alone a food writer. And I found myself loving it.

The loathing of ratatouille was one of those hangovers from childhood, along with porridge and mixed citrus peel, that I couldn’t seem to get over. There are a few reasons for this but it basically boils down to bad cooking, multiple times.

The Mediterranean ingredients which comprise ratatouille were not common in 1980s North Lincolnshire. Everyone grew tomatoes - Gardener’s Delight - or bought watery orange imports from Holland. Peppers were not much loved, especially green ones. Gluts of courgettes were common, but usually grew into marrows (another of my bete noires) or featured in chutneys. Garlic - hated by many and not ubiquitous in the way it is today. And aubergines? I don’t remember them featuring at all. Were they available? They must have been, but when I look back in my memory they are analogous with limes - impossible to buy and then suddenly everywhere.

The people who did cook with all of these ingredients were the vegetarian, hippyish Good Life types who had come up mainly from the south and London, lured by cheap crumbling farmhouses and land for growing. They brought with them a certain earnest shabby cosmopolitanism (Jilly Cooper is SO GOOD at caricaturing the type in many of her books) along with tatty copies of Elizabeth David and The Cranks Recipe Book and their food was very much peasant European. Sadly, their food usually manifested as some kind of slop, masquerading as a Mediterranean stew (ragout, please) always accompanied by the worst kind of worthy wholemeal bread (usually under proofed and baked, the sort that could be immediately be squished into a grey putty.) The sugar free cakes were even worse, especially when you were used to spectacular farmhouse high teas (I was) and a mum who was a superb baker.

Aside: I had experience of the hippies because most of them were, it has to be said, a bit clueless and my parents, teachers both but also very practical and doing the smallholding thing well, had the reputation of being people to go to for help. So there were regular knocks on the door and invites over so they could impart knowledge re animal husbandry (everyone kept as a minimum goats and chickens, including us), growing food, even basic DIY. I soon learned that eating in these households had to be done with extreme caution. Indifference to the filth and squalor of their surroundings and persons (see Jilly Cooper again) of course extended to their kitchen hygiene and food prep. Any meal including home grown vegetables invariably meant an inclusion also of grit, slugs, greenfly, caterpillar poo. Possibly cat hairs too. This is one of the reasons I am OCDish about food prep. No nasty surprises at my table.

I would try to avoid these invites, and instead used to run off to my granny’s for the blissful predictability of food out of a tin. This is presumably why I thought it perfectly reasonable to try tinned ratatouille. At the time I loved tinned food - ravioli and baked beans, oxtail soup and vegetables - sweet Jersey royals, carrots, peas, sweetcorn. Ambrosia custard and rice pudding, Heinz steamed puddings. Considered treat foods by me as they were such a novelty.

But tinned ratatouille failed me. The sluggy grey aubergines and bitter, slightly sulphurous green peppers bled an unpleasant flavour into what I considered the more benign ingredients. I assumed it was mainly the aubergines and the combination of ingredients I didn’t like and so dismissed the whole dish. I avoided aubergines for quite a while after that which frankly wasn’t too hard because as I say, they didn’t feature largely in North Lincolnshire cuisine.

Such a shame. A dish which at its best is the embodiment of an abundant summer - bursting, almost over ripe vegetables melding into something warm, rich, vibrant with an almost languid sweetness. But instead, so often a soul destroying bowl of sludgy and homogeneous disappointment.

This was version 1 - had a slightly longer pressure cook and started to collapse a bit more than I wanted. Still tasted great though

Of course I tried it again. “Proper versions”. It’s just that those proper versions were not well cooked. Most of the recipes around at that time used an all in one-method which could easily be thrown together - but so often was without due care and attention. My early years in London were full of such concoctions - a ratatouille was seen as something quite sophisticated, especially if it was used as a pasta sauce - a step up from a jar of Dolmio or a Campbell’s mushroom soup tuna pasta bake. Sometimes they conflated, badly - the same ingredients cooked in that jarred artificial tasting, dried basil including pasta sauce in lieu of fresh or tinned tomatoes. There was also student experimentation to deal with. I remember a kind friend offering to cook me dinner in halls after I had undergone a particularly public heartbreak, but sadly deciding at the last minute to add some of his mum’s chutney to his ratatouille-based pasta sauce as he thought it would “add something”. I can still see his face when he said “hmm, not sure about the chutney” and I am here to tell you that chutneyed raisins and ratatouille on pasta don’t go. Especially not with vomitous pre grated parmesan, shaken out in horrible little clumps from its plastic container.

Every attempt seemed to reinforce why I didn’t like it - I eventually decided that aubergines and courgettes don’t work together in tomato sauce - their flavours seemed to meld into something I didn’t like. But then I discovered and loved caponata which often has both. And frequently added courgettes to parmigiana melanzane which is probably one of my top five things to eat EVER. So of course, I knew I was wrong and put ratatouille into a “must try again” box. But didn’t, not even when an animated rat gave it a resurgence in popularity. Until now. Its time - better late than not at all - was this week.

How I Won’t Do Ratatouille

There are of course many ways to make ratatouille. There is the all in one method I was used to - a saute of the key vegetables - aubergines, courgettes, peppers, onions - but all together and for silly amounts of time, then tomatoes added and everything stewed together. Most of the older books I have do variations of this. Elizabeth David’s recipe in French Provincial Cooking involves sauteeing the vegetables together in olive oil for 40 minutes, then simmering with the tomatoes for at least another half an hour. I don’t understand how you can do this even conventionally without it all collapsing. Anyway, it isn’t for me and certainly isn’t for the pressure cooker. The main reason being a tomato sauce needs time to cook, and the vegetables which comprise ratatouille do not need nearly as long. You end up with something waterlogged and indistinct.

The second method, which seems to be the most popular in these days of everything needing to be Instagrammable, and is based on the one Thomas Keller developed for the film Ratatouille, moves away from ragout territory to the extent that it doesn’t seem in the spirit of ratatouille at all. The tomato sauce is made first and spread over the base of an oven proof dish, the vegetables are arranged concentrically and prettily on top, then the whole thing is baked. Again, not for the pressure cooker - the vegetables would give out too much liquid, even salted and with a short cook. You could do the Pot in Pot method, but it is limiting in terms of size. Also - I don’t really want any hint of crispness to my ratatouille - isn’t the whole point a smooth and velvety texture?

My Way

I know my method will annoy some people who want all my recipes to be simple, dump it all in affairs. This one is definitely not that, it has several steps and a two stage pressure cook. But ratatouille has to be done properly and when it is done so, the results really are superb. And the cooking time is so short!

Regardless of how you are cooking it (ie, in a pressure cooker or in a conventional saucepan), the way to go is to make a tomato sauce (usually in my household at least, fresh in summer, tinned in winter), saute the vegetables separately and VERY lightly - a little colour is all you want, the fastest of sears - then combine with absolutely minimal cooking. Colman Andrews’s brilliant Flavours of the Riviera put me on the right track here. I have done variations 3 times in the past week and have been delighted with each. The vegetables retain much of their colour and integrity, they are soft but not soggy or slimy. The sauce has sweetness and herbal depth and a wonderful smooth creaminess. It thickens as it cools, a good thing as it is best eaten warm, not hot. And as a dish it improves with age, becoming jammier with each reheating.

This was the best version - vegetables are soft but totally distinct and sauce - it's there but kept to a minimum

The version below serves four fairly generously, but it is worth making double the amount - or at the very least double the amount of tomato sauce - as it will last in the fridge a good week and it is so useful. I added a couple of spoonfuls of ratatouille to my son’s chicken pasta today and the combination of the vegetables with a buttery chicken stock was superb.

Flavourings - keep them simple. I tend towards the woodier Mediterranean herbs. Oregano and thyme are my minimum, maybe bay, depending on my mood. A pinch of cinnamon for sweetness. Basil - I am ambivalent about basil. It depends on how pungent. A robust basil, grown outside is too much for me, it develops coarser, pointy leaves and a flavour I don’t love. A softer leafed basil is fine - subtler and a small sprig laid on top of your sauce will give you all the flavour you need.

Oh - and if you happen to have a shallow saute sized pressure cooker and want to serve it at table and make it look pretty, you can take the concentric approach. Saute/sear everything separately as per the recipe below, put the onions and peppers on the base, stir in the sauce. Arrange angled and overlapping rounds of courgettes and aubergines on top. The sauce will bubble up around the vegetables but they will keep their place and shape. I don’t do this because you really need rounds the same size - not easy - and because shallow rounds have a bigger surface area, the sauteeing will have to be done in more batches.

Pressure Cooker Ratatouille

For the tomato sauce:

2 tbsp olive oil

500g fresh tomatoes (I used a mixture of orange and red cherry tomatoes), cored and roughly chopped if large

3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 sprig thyme

1 bay leaf (optional)

A pinch of cinnamon

1 sprig basil (optional)

For the vegetables:

6 tbsp olive oil

2 aubergines, diced

3 courgettes, sliced/cut into crescents depending on size

2 romesco peppers, diced

2 tsp dried oregano

1 onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

To serve:

A few sprigs parsley, finely chopped

First prepare the vegetables. I usually salt aubergines, and courgettes too, if I have the time. It isn’t about removing bitterness these days, but to remove some excess water, so they saute a bit better and don’t flood your dish with liquid. If salting both (at the very least try to do the aubergines) put in separate sieves or colanders and suspend over bowls. Toss in a teaspoon of sea salt and leave to stand for at least half an hour.

Make the tomato sauce. Heat your pressure cooker and add the olive oil. Add the tomatoes and let them sear for a few moments, before adding everything else. Season with salt and pepper. Add 50ml of water. This should instantly create steam. Get your lid on fast and bring your cooker up to high pressure. Cook for 5 minutes, then allow to drop pressure naturally.

Remove the bay and thyme sprig and puree the sauce. I use a stick blender directly in the cooker. If you want it really smooth you can push it all through a sieve. Set aside.

Saute the vegetables. Heat a large frying pan and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Pat dry the aubergines and add to the pan. Do not overcrowd - you might have to do this in more than one batch. Sprinkle with oregano and a crack of black pepper. Sear very lightly - 30 seconds to a minute on a hot heat should be enough per side.

Repeat with a second batch as necessary, then repeat with the courgettes and peppers, adding more oil each time, salt and pepper and a sprinkling of oregano.

Finally, heat your pressure cooker and add more olive oil. Add the onion and saute for a few minutes until starting to look translucent. Add the garlic and the tomato sauce then very gently stir in the sauteed vegetables. Season with salt and pepper again. Close the lid, bring up to high pressure and immediately remove from the heat. Leave to stand off the heat for 5 minutes then release any remaining pressure.

Leave to cool a little before serving. Sprinkle with a little freshly chopped parsley.

this one also good but too much sauce - forgot I had made a double batch of sauce and added it all to the vegetables by mistake. Duh.

More from me soon - I shall hopefully be back in a couple of days with a Last Night’s Dinner. And next week something a bit different - I have 2 work experience teens in the kitchen (one of them is Adam, wish me luck) and they will be creating a recipe together (from start to finish including the shopping, cooking AND clearing up) and writing it up here. You may remember I did this with Lilly last year. I’m looking forward to seeing what these two come up with.

Thank you for reading! As usual, please comment, like, restack and share with anyone you think might be interested - it is a free one and passing it on helps so much with visibility!