It’s garden time, so I made ratatouille recently. It’s surprisingly easy and tastes amazingly delicious. Although my recipe may not be identical to those you’ve tasted, remember that this is essentially a dish prepared in the French countryside. It was improvised with what was available, not etched on stone tablets. Do a little improvisation yourself.
You need (do all of the prep work first):
- 1 eggplant, cubed, with skin on
- 1 largish zucchini, cut into slices/disks
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Olive oil (2 tablespoons or so).
- 1 large white onion, cut into rings
- 2 cups white mushrooms, cut into thin slices
- 2 cups or so of fresh tomatoes, cored and cubed
- Kosher salt (to lightly sprinkle between layers of veggies).
- 1 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 large rectangular baking dish (9×13 or close)
Here’s how you do it:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Heat a skillet, then add a tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the garlic until aromatic (you can smell it). Add the eggplant and sauté until soft, about ten minutes. Add more olive oil as needed
- Spray the baking dish with cooking spray, then dump the eggplant into the bottom. Salt and sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover with a layer of zucchini. Salt and sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover with a layer of onions. Salt and sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover with a layer of mushrooms. Salt and sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover with a layer of tomatoes. Salt and sprinkle with cheese.
- Place the cooking dish on an edged cookie sheet and put in the oven. Cook for 40 minutes.
Serve as a side dish OR grill some chicken and serve on top of this dish. Serve with warm, crusty bread so you can soak up the delicious juices.
You will not believe how amazing this tastes. My wife couldn’t believe that the only seasoning was salt.
The Ratatouille—Ridiculously Easy and Delicious by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.