Gratin Catalan
by Kermit Lynch
Catalans love red peppers. I’m on vacation in French Catalonia and summer produce is now in the market, so I can make one of my favorite gratins. Here’s how:
First, put slices of red onion on the bottom of a gratin dish, moistened with olive oil. Cover the onions with half-inch slices of eggplant and sprinkle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then a layer of red peppers sliced into fairly flat pieces—olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then top with tomatoes—Romas are best. Slice several in half lengthwise and place them cut side up on top of the red peppers. And guess what? Olive oil, salt, and pepper!
After the gratin has been in a 400° oven for about an hour, your kitchen will smell good. Once you take a bite, you’ll be impressed by the complexity of the flavors. If in the future you want to produce some variations on a theme, you can’t lose with things like dried thyme, garlic, piment d’espelette, anchovies, fennel pollen, and so on.
This gratin is good left over, cold or reheated. It is similar to ratatouille, but better.
The wine has to be red and, to my taste, from the Mediterranean basin, such as the sun-ripened beauties here.