Roasted Ratatouille

 

There was a recipe for ROASTED RATATOUILLE in a section of my newspaper, and I had everything but the eggplants and onions growing in my garden. I like when that happens. I went to my local organic farmstand to buy the eggplants and picked up some onions, garlic, and sweet corn while I was at it. The recipe said to use thyme to season it, but I ignored them and used basil instead. I also didn't have enough cherry tomatoes, so I cut up some of my larger tomatoes.

 

Ingredients

2 eggplants, cubed

2 onions, diced

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into pieces

2 zucchini, cubed

12 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

Large handful of fresh basil

¼ cup — olive oil

Salt and black pepper to taste

2 cups — cherry tomatoes or cubed tomatoes

Method

Cut everything up and toss it with the olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Spread it out on baking sheets and roast it at 425F degrees for twenty minutes or so, or until browning on bottom. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook until they are soft or around another twenty minutes or so.

I served this last night with corn on the cob, some pinto beans cooked with onion and seasonings, pesto noodles, and steamed greens.

There was some leftover ratatouille, so I put it on today's pizza along with nutritional yeast, olive oil, salt and pepper, oregano, onion slices, greens, and pretend pizza pepperoni rounds, with a drizzle of creamy miso dressing. Maybe it's the sourdough crust, but it sure was good.

My friend Gerry mentioned his family had some ratatouille already cooked on a really hot day, so they just blended it and served it cold like a gazpacho. You really can't go wrong with ingredients this fresh in the summertime.