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I’m so excited! Ratatouille is coming out on DVD next week (November 6). The nice people at Click Communications sent me a preview copy. It was wonderful timing as my mother, who’s French, was in town. She hadn’t seen it, so it was a perfect movie to share with her grandkids.

We loved watching Ratatouille again even though we had seen it in the theater when it was first released. We enjoyed the short features, too. The foodie in me loved “Fine Food and Film: A Conversation with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller,” a behind the scenes look at how master chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller brought his real life expertise to the table. And the kids loved the new animated short film “Your Friend the Rat,” starring Remy and Emile from Ratatouille

So, What’s Cooking?

For the occasion, I made dinner using a recipe from the movie’s children’s cookbook, What’s Cooking? A cookbook based on a movie? Yes, and a good one at that. It has very authentic but kid-friendly recipes for classic French dishes like crepes, croque monsieur (a favorite of my nephews in Switzerland), and quiche lorraine. There’s a few fun dishes in What’s Cooking? too, like Easy Faux Escargot (roll ups) and Pizza Rats (cut up English muffin pizzas that look like rats’ faces).

(If you would like some more Ratatouille-based recipes, click here to download a four-page PDF from Disney and Family Fun magazine at AtoZKidsStuff.com. The recipes are based on ones in What’s Cooking?)

And of course there was this recipe for Gusteau’s Ratatouille, which my mother and I enjoyed and tried to pursuade the kids to eat

Gusteau’s Ratatouille

Ingredients:

1. 1 large eggplant, cubed
2. 1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
3. 1 onion, thinly sliced
4. 1 chopped pepper (red or green)
5. 2 to 4 crushed garlic cloves
6. 4 small zucchini, chopped
7. 4 tomatoes, chopped
8. Salt and pepper to taste
9. 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
10. Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

1. Salt the eggplant, drain in a colander for 1 hour, and pat dry. Heat half of the oil in a large saucepan and briefly saute the eggplant until brown, then add the onion and pepper. Next, add the garlic, zucchini, and tomatoes. Cook until a soft stew has formed, about 15 to 30 minutes.
2. Serve over rice in a bowl or on a plate
3. Add the salt, pepper, and basil. Sprinkle with the cheese and serve. You can freeze leftovers.

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