Serve warm or cold.The traditional ratatouille recipe is actually a just a simple recipe with stewed vegetables arranged beautifully in a dish. Stir in the chopped basil leaves and more extra virgin olive oil, to taste.Remove the bouquet of basil, pressing on it to extract all its flavors, and adjust the seasoning with salt. Cook for 10 minutes longer, then stir in eggplant and cook for 10 to 15 minutes more, until all the vegetables are soft.Cook for a few more minutes, then stir in tomatoes. Cook for a few more minutes, then stir in summer squash. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes, then stir in peppers.Add the garlic, basil bouquet, dried chile flakes, and a bit more salt. Add onions and cook for about 7 minutes, or until soft and translucent. In the same pot, pour in 2 more tablespoons olive oil.Remove the eggplant when done and set aside. Add a bit more oil if the eggplant absorbs all the oil and sticks to the bottom of the pan. Pat the eggplant dry, add to the pan, and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot.Set the cubes in a colander to drain for about 20 minutes. Toss the eggplant cubes with a teaspoon or so of salt.This bouquet stays in only long enough to impart its aroma, replaced by a handful of its vegetal, freshly chopped leaves. Basil, as opposed to the woodier classics-thyme and rosemary-adds a liveliness to the vegetable party, pulling out the fruitiness of the tomatoes and bell peppers. Now back to that basil bouquet (exactly as it sounds: a smaller bunch of basil tied into a bouquet with kitchen twine). From here, the eggplant gets folded into a saucy, flavorful base of peppers, squash, garlic, and tomatoes. Don’t be alarmed if your wrung-out eggplant is extra-thirsty for oil, and starts sticking to the pan-sticking is good for browning! Simply add another glug of oil, and stir frequently to keep the crisp faces from sticking too much and burning. Salting, draining, and patting the eggplant cubes dry helps to remove excess water from the fruit (yes, it’s a fruit), which concentrates its flavor and makes for better browning later. Plus, it’s ratio is easy to remember: All vegetables conveniently work out to about a pound. This Genius ratatouille recipe from Alice Waters' 2007 cookbook The Art of Simple Food fusses only where it needs to fuss (over the eggplant), and adds a few smart, modern details-red chile flakes, a basil bouquet-that improve on a well-worn classic. Before that, “ratatouille” merely referred to a chunky vegetable stew. This version, as we know it, only came about around 200 years ago. Kidding! Ratatouille is a southern French dish of stewed vegetables-commonly featuring eggplant, sweet peppers, summer squash, garlic, onion, and tender green herbs, in a tomato-based sauce. When Linguini recognizes that Remy could be his ticket to a stable path and career, the two collaborate, make magic in the kitchen, and end up serving Paris’s most cold-hearted restaurant critic a dish so good he cries. The former’s dream is to cook in Paris’s most prominent restaurant (Gusteau’s) while the latter is rather, well, lost. Ratatouille is a 2007 Pixar film about Remy, a culinarily talented rat, and Alfredo Linguini, an awkward garbage boy.