Ratatouille!

I love food, and I love cooking, and so I think it may not come as much of a surprise that I adore the movie. Besides being a Pixar venture, and absolutely adorable and heartwarming from start-to-finish, it holds a special place in my heart because of it's subject matter. Every time I watch it I'm reminded of how much I love food and cooking, and one scene in particular perfectly captures that feeling for me.

When the angry food critic, Anton Ego, is at Gusteau's to review the restaurant, Remy suggests that they make ratatouille. Colette, the other chef, denounces it as a peasant dish - but when Ego takes a bite, it instantly transports him to his childhood. I love how the scene shifts from the surprise in his adult eyes, to the memory of enjoying the same dish as a child. It's kind of ridiculous, but I can't help it... every time I see that part in the movie, I get a little teary-eyed.

The dish that Ego tastes at Gusteau's and the dish that he remembers eating as a child are very different in presentation - a nouveau stack of vegetables versus what is truly a peasant's stew - but in essence they are the same, and I love that. Food is nourishment, first and foremost, but it's also comfort and art and innovation. I love that I can take a handful of ingredients, and by following a list of steps, turn them into something entirely different - something that makes the people I love smile and ask, "What is this?"

Although I don't have any recipes or yummy food pictures to post today - I'm being taken out to dinner tonight at Sweetgrass, a local restaurant we haven't tried yet - I do have a link to a recipe I've made that I think is quite good and appropriate for today's post. It's Rachael Ray's Ratatouille Pasta Toss, and when we made it earlier this summer it was quite delicious!