Hi there,

International Woman’s Day is March 8, and I would like to salute an extraordinary female chef, the groundbreaking Mollie Katzen.

In the 1970s a cookbook was born that captured the world’s flavors in a new way. It was called the Moosewood Cookbook, revolutionizing how people cooked.

The Moosewood Cookbook was written in 1977 by an artist and self-taught cook Mollie Katzen. This book drew on her experience cooking in her beloved Moosewood natural foods restaurant in Ithaca, New York, and featured recipes inspired by her travels. This cookbook was a major influence on the vegetarian food movement and helped to expand our horizons in the kitchen. 

Mollie presented her readers with a wide variety of vegetarian dishes which are both accessible and flavorful. Further, readers were also introduced to ingredients and techniques from around the world. The book helped to make cooking and exploring new ingredients accessible to cooks of all levels.

Creative, flavorful, and inspiring, the Moosewood Cookbook has won many awards and honors and helped raise the vegetarian food profile. Of Mollie’s many books, the Moosewood Cookbook remains her best-known and beloved, inspiring a new generation of cooks to be Gutsy Gourmets and to explore the global table.

I chose to make Mollie’s Ratatouille to showcase the simplicity of her genius.

““Women of my generation were keen – rightly – not to be tied to the stove, but the ramifications of this were that they felt a sense of dread in the kitchen. How can this be good for anyone? I also feel that to denigrate any activity because it has traditionally been associated with the female sphere is in itself anti-feminist.” 

Nigella Lawson

INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S DAY – saluting Mollie Katzen

Recipe by Mollie Katzen Course: AppetizersCuisine: MediterraneanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 medium 1 medium onion, chopped

• 2 medium/small 2 2 medium bell peppers, cut in strips or cubed
  2 small zucchini or 2 small summer squash, small, cubed
  

• 1 small 1 eggplant, cubed

• 4 cloved 4 garlic crushed

• 2 medium 2 tomatoes cut into chucnks

• 1 bay leaf
  1 teaspoon basil
  1 teaspoon marjoram
  ¹⁄₂ teaspoon oregano
  1 dash rosemary
  

• tablespoons dry red wine

• 1/2 cup 1/2 tomato juice

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  2 teaspoons salt, approximately
  black pepper, to taste
  ¹⁄₄ cup olive oil
  fresh parsley, chopped
  

Preparation

• Heat olive oil in a large, heavy, cooking pot. Crush the garlic into the oil. Add bay leaf and onion, salt lightly. Saute over medium heat until onion begins to turn transparent. Add eggplant, wine, and tomato juice. Add herbs. Stir to mix well, then cover and simmer 10-15 minutes over low heat. When eggplant is tender enough to be easily pricked by a fork, add zucchini and peppers. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix well. Continue to stew until all vegetables are tender. (How tender is tender? Do a taste test and decide what seems right to you.).
  
• Just before serving, mix in the fresh parsley.
  

Notes

• Serving Suggestions/Options: Serve on a bed of rice, or in a bowl, accompanied by some good french bread. Top with grated cheese and chopped black olives.

I hope you have enjoyed meeting Mollie and learning about her groundbreaking cookbook. Our COOKBOOK CONFIDENTIAL COOKBOOK CLUB will be reviewing the Moosewood Cookbooks in April and will be giving you lots of other recipes to try.