Ratatouille Sandwich

Gabrielle Hamilton, the owner and chef at 'Prune' and the author of my best loved food memoir last year 'Blood, Butter, and Bones', has this sandwich on her menu. I would never have tried it except that my sister-in-law posted about her own version of a Ratatouille Sandwich as her first post on Facebook--so it must be good, right? I had no idea. In fact, it had been years since we even made ratatouille at our house.

 My boys are no what I would call overwhelmingly fond of eggplant (there is one exception, but he has been out of the house for four years so it not like we are building meals around him these days). Add on top of that that it has not been an exceptional tomato year recently--not to the point where I have has to grapple with what to do with excellent, but slightly over ripe tomatoes.

But all that changed this summer.  We have been reliably attending the local farmer's market, and just as reliably cooking what we bring home.  My spouse had just read about the proper assembly method for an exceptional ratatouille, and we collaborated on it.  I did the dicing off each ingredient and he set about cooking them separately.  The result was outstanding, and when assembled on fresh bread (from the Prairie Flour Bakery, in our case), it is a sandwich for the ages.  You can add cheese or whatever you like, but it is excellent, just ratatouille and bread, room temperature.