{"id":286,"date":"2008-08-19T21:16:53","date_gmt":"2008-08-19T21:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marialiberati.com\/blog2\/?p=286"},"modified":"2008-08-19T21:16:53","modified_gmt":"2008-08-19T21:16:53","slug":"eggplant-zucchini-ratatouille-and-my-voglio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2008\/08\/19\/eggplant-zucchini-ratatouille-and-my-voglio\/","title":{"rendered":"Eggplant, Zucchini Ratatouille and My Voglio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ratatouille.jpg\"<\/a>\"melanzane.jpg\"<\/a>
\n(Photo credits : http:\/\/www.mets-de-provence.fr<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/pre>\n
 
\n 
\nHave you ever had a ‘voglio’? A voglio is the way Italians express a strong desire for something- someone that you love, a food, a dish, \u00a0an experience. One way to say I love you is ‘te voglio bene’- which literally translated means I desire you very much. Or as the students text\u00a0 the abbreviation\u00a0t.v.b.(te voglio bene) to each other.
\nWell enough for our Italian lesson.
\nToday I had a strong ‘voglio’ for eggplants. There are eggplants everywhere you go since this is their season for the next few weeks and they are grown everywhere. The farm markets are filled with them.
\nThe dish I selected to make for ‘pranzo’ (lunch) was Ratatouille\u00a0of eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. But to be worthy of a ‘voglio’ thsi dish must be made with the freshest and best ingredients. There are only a few ingredients\u00a0in this dish\u00a0and each one is important.
\nLet’s start with the tomatoes. I used fresh San Marzano tomatoes (by the way these tomatoes deserve a t.v.b.all\u00a0 to themselves. They are as sweet as candy and if you ever need a reason to visit Italy- one of those would be to taste a fresh San Marzano tomato grown in Italy-nothing like it.) However if\u00a0 you can’t get fresh San Marzano tomatoes use a fresh plum tomato that is red and ripe. If you must use canned, use only a high quality canned tomato (but only as a last resort).
\nOlive oil- use a good quality extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil from Italy. If\u00a0 you use anything less this dish will not be a success.
\nMozzarella cheese- usea freshly made mozzarella
\nParmigiano-Reggiano Cheese-use only parmigiano-reggiano cheese-don’t use anything that is called anything else- parmesan is not real parmigiano-reggiano cheese.
\nFresh zucchini, eggplant, onion- these vegetables should be very fresh, eggplants and zucchini should be firm. Buy your produce locally from a local farm is possible to insure freshness.
\nRatatouille of Zucchini and Eggplant<\/strong>
\n*2\u00a0medium fresh eggplants
\n*3 medium size zucchini
\n*5 fresh plum tomatoes
\n*2 cloves of garlic
\n*3 tblsps of olive oil
\n*1 slice of\u00a0 fresh onion chopped
\n*pinch of salt
\n* 1\/2 cup dry white wine
\n*4 ounces of fresh mozzarella
\n*3 tblsps parmigiano-reggiano cheese
\nWash eggplant and zucchini. Cut zucchini into 1\/4 inch slices. Cut eggplant into 1\/4 inch cubes. Wash tomatoes. Filet them by removing inside liquid and seeds. Slice into thin slices.
\nIn large saute pan, heat olive oil. Saute whole garlic cloves, chopped onions till golden. place in cut eggplants and zucchini and 1\/2 cup dry white wine, 1\/2 cup water. Saute for 10 minutes, stirring. Add in tomatoes, stirring and saute for another 10 minutes or until eggplant and zucchini are tender. If at any time liquid is needed add in a little water.
\nWhen done remove from heat and add in cubed mozzarella and grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese. Stir, mozzarella cheese will become stringy. Serve warm or cool. Either way this is\u00a0a delicious dish for a summer day. Serve with grissini sticks and\u00a0 dry white wine. We had some Falenghina (one of my favorite white wines) with this dish.
\nBuon Appetito!
\nFor more recipes get your copy of the bestselling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at https:\/\/www.marialiberati.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Photo credits : http:\/\/www.mets-de-provence.fr)     Have you ever had a ‘voglio’? A voglio is the way Italians express a strong desire for something- someone that you love, a food,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,7,11],"tags":[305,9,271,223,20,306,307,308,309,310],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caro-diariodear-diary","category-cucina","category-recipes","tag-eggplant","tag-food","tag-garlic","tag-mozzarella","tag-olive-oil","tag-onion","tag-parmigiana","tag-san-marzano","tag-tomato","tag-zucchini"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}