Ratatouille

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a French peasants’ dish.  The vegetables that are used are typically whatever is in fresh and in season.  The main ingredients are as follows but bell peppers are also commonly added.  This is a vegetarian dish but feel free to add chicken or andouille sausage.

20 min prep 30 min to cook

¼ cup olive oil and more as needed

¼ medium onion

3 cloves garlic

3 carrots

1 small eggplant

2 yellow squash

3 zucchini squash

1 large can stewed tomatoes

1 tbsp dried herbs (recommend poultry seasoning but can use any you like)

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large stew pot on medium heat add ¼ cup of olive oil.  Chop cloves of garlic and onion and add to pan to sweat (cook until onions are translucent).  While that is sweating chop carrots into large bite size pieces then add to pot.  Next chop eggplant into roughly same size and add to pot.  After adding eggplant you may need to add more olive oil as it will soak up most of it.  Let the carrots and eggplant cook while you chop yellow and zucchini squashes and add them to the pot.  Stir well to make sure everything gets a good coating of olive oil and let cook on medium heat for another 2 minutes stirring occasionally to make sure all vegetables are evenly cooked.  Finally add in can of stewed tomatoes and herbs.  Turn down heat to simmer and let cook for 30 minutes or until vegetables are to desired tenderness stirring occasionally.  Salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve as is or over rice, couscous, or some sort of hearty noodles.  Garnish with a little parmesan cheese.