Pisto and Ratatouille - It's a Spanish-French Affair  What does Spain and the French Provence have in common?  Their love for the simple basics of summer fare - a culinary celebration of aubergine, tomatoes, courgettes, capsicums (peppers) onions and garlic, a multitalented beginning or end on its own.  In any case, sun-kissed and olive oil blessed. (info)

...pisto beginnings

What do you have when you sauté onion, garlic, aubergine (or not) and sweet peppers?  Is it the ratatouille - fiercely French - or simply Spanish Pisto Manchego (named for its region of origin)?  Or maybe it is neither but a natural thing to do with so much summer bounty. 

On either side of the Pyrenees, it's practical peasant fare, terribly healthy and can be a meal on its own.  Just add a bottle of wine, crusty fresh bread, a plate of olives, maybe a wedge of local cheese, friends and sun and ahhh...isn't life just grand!

The French version of pisto - the ratatouille - always uses aubergines (eggplants) and the Spanish pisto may or may not, depending on which Mama and her recipe is the definitive authority.  Reality is, the addition of aubergine or not just depends on if you have one at the time and if you like them in the pisto.

The basics of pisto/ratatouille are always onion, garlic, tomatoes and peppers.  Without them - then you are cooking something else.  Tomatoes act as the thickened liquid that is the medium that mergers the flavours.  Peppers can be coarsely diced as can the onions and these give not only flavour, but texture. 

Personally, I prefer coarsely chopped onions and garlic, but sliced peppers.  The courgettes I prefer sliced in half rounds or even smaller, sliced slightly thicker than the peppers and the aubergine in a small dice so that it almost cooks away into the tomatoes to thicken the sauciness of this dish.  Some cooks use more tomato and only red peppers instead of the green.

Is there an exact recipe for either?  Only if you want to duplicate rather exactly someone's version.  Proportions are really up to the cook - who, however, understands that pisto/ratatouille is a tomato based dish that is not shy on onion but lighter on the garlic so that the flavours of the other vegetables remain the main attraction. 

Technique is not complicated, unless you try the classic method for cooking the ratatouille.  This involved removing the skins and seeds of the tomatoes and cooking the prepared  vegetables each in their own pot to be combined at the end before being seasoned with salt and Herbes du Provance or a combination of thyme, oregano, coriander seeds and fennel.  Sometimes a splash of red or white wine is added.  Total cooking time can take about an hour.

Spanish pisto is not so fussy.  Some cooks do remove the skin and deseed the tomatoes and peel the aubergine and some do not.  Onions and garlic are gently sautéed in plenty of olive oil with the peppers, then the aubergine is added until most of the oil is absorbed.  Then come the chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and often a good pinch of sugar and some cooks add a bay leaf.  All is allowed to cook covered about 15-20 minutes depending on size of vegetables and personal preference.  It is done when the vegetables are very soft but not mushy.  This is not a dish for al dente preferences.  Think very thick sauce with good texture.

The French may cringe at the thought (do we care ;>), but for a really home style pisto you can serve a plate of it topped with an egg, either fried or scrambled.  Or you can spread a thick layer in a shallow casserole and break a few eggs on the top.  Allow to set in a hot oven then serve.

For either version and when tomatoes are less than flavourful, a good tablespoon of tomato puree concentrate or the Spanish tomate frito will enliven the dish.

History and the Name game

It is thought the Spanish have the Moorish Arabs to thank for this dish called alboronia and it is said it originated in La Mancha (to the south) where it is still referred to by its Arabic name but elsewhere in Spain as Pisto Manchega...or just plain pisto.  However, tomatoes and peppers were brought to Spain by the conquistadors returning from the Americas late 1600's. 

The last Arab king was defeated in 1492.  Any Moors remaining would have had to convert (at least outwardly), leave or face torture and death.  So it is the Spanish who introduced the main ingredients for the dish to the Moors.  Most likely this dish is one of the last Spanish-Moorish culinary merges. 

And whether the French agree or not, pisto came first, eventually moving northwards and east into Italy and then much later into French cooking where it began to appear in French cookery books in the early 1800's.  You can sleep better tonight knowing this.  ;>)

Besides the French and Spanish names, it is called samfaina in Cataluña (N.E. Spain), tumbet  in the Balearic Islands.  The word ratatouille originally referred to a completely different dish.  But that's another article.

Uses and Variations

Besides served as a hot vegetable dish, cold leftovers make for a delicious, light tapa (little appetizer) or as a topping on bread for a quick snack.  A speciality in some areas of Valencia is a pizza like base topped generously with the pisto and evenly sprinkled with tuna and pine nuts.  Baked in an oven and you have coquetes or coca pisto or coca samfaina in Catalan.

Serve as a thick sauce over fish or on the side or use as a cooking medium for fish or poultry.  Top lamb cutlets with it or even cook them in it (only takes a few minutes using thin cutlets as they are cut here in Spain).  And pasta!  Absolutely delicious.  Toss your favourite pasta in a generous amount of hot pisto and allow to sit covered a few moments before serving.  And while we are at it, guess who invented tomato sauce...but that's another article.

Other variations to the pisto incorporate diced potato or pumpkin, diced ham, sweet or air-dried such as Serrano ham (similar to Parma ham but more flavourful) or even pork salt fat.  Fresh basil or oregano can be added as well.

Turn it into a pisto stew by thinning with a little beef broth or use as is and spread on half a baguette or similar bread and top with a wedge of tortilla (not the Mexican flat bread but the Spanish egg and potato dish similar to a thick omelette). 

The Basque version of pisto (Pisto Balbaina) uses less tomato (about one when most recipes call for 4 to 6), uses courgette as the main ingredient and is not at all saucy, but is rather like a drier vegetable stew than the ratatouille.  

Make your pisto/ratatouille in large batches and freeze.  Keep a quantity in the refrigerator.  You will soon find many uses for it, be it filling an omelette, spooning it onto bread, seasoning a soup or as a delicious complementary vegetable. 

However you enjoy this culinary celebration of summer bounty, your appreciation for the simple flavours of life will be a little richer and definitively sun-kissed.

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