The Sinful Choice
There’s comfort food. Everyone knows about that. It has been resigned to the category of “guilty pleasures.” We eye these dishes with a combination of food lust and the fact that we know it probably isn’t good for us. It’s loaded with calories, sugars, sodium, and who knows what else (especially if commercially prepared). I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a steady diet of such fare. But once in a while I don’t think it hurts to indulge ourselves in some decadence.
The Feel-good Choice
Then there’s the feel-good food. To me the litmus test is how I feel after I’ve eaten a certain dish. If I feel sluggish and not quite right, then I know the comfort food Gods have had their way with me. But if I feel satisfied in a good way, and I seem energized by the dish, then I know my body has liked it. And it was probably the right thing to eat.
Our Feel-Good Vegetable Stack
I really like this recipe. First of all, it incorporates two vegetables that don’t hold much popularity. This dish does have a French Provencal flavor to it with a Mediterranean influence. It can be compared with ratatouille because our dish incorporates almost the same ingredients – it’s just that we stacked them. By adding the basil and the oregano, it seems almost like an Italian dish.
And secondly, at the end of our vegetable garden season, these are two vegetables that seem to be in abundance. Gardeners have trouble giving these two vegetables away. If you take the time to search out recipes for these two, and/or you are an imaginative chef, there’s lots of good eating to be had.
If Only They Had Known . . .
In the movie, if only Remy, Linguini, and Colette had known about our rough-cut stack, they wouldn’t have had to cook that fussy and fanned confit byaldi. And I think the critic would have been just as impressed.