Oven Roasted Ratatouille

In the spirit of summer vegetables and as a thank you to my mom for her help as my gardening instructor, I made two dishes of Oven Roasted Ratatouille- one for John and I and one for my Mom to take home for she and my dad to enjoy. I used a recipe that I found on smittenkitchen.com for a Ratatouille inspired baked veggie concoction. I've been looking for an excuse to use the mandolin that John got me for Christmas too so this was just perfect. I found that the zucchini squash (I used green and yellow) was easy to slice quickly with the mandolin but the eggplant and bell pepper aren't necessarily mandolin-able due to the toughness of the skin. I sliced those thinly with a sharp knife- to about 1/8 of an inch. For two medium-sized baking dishes of the Ratatouille I used: 2 red bell peppers 4 medium sized squashes 2 small eggplants I set my vegetables aside in three different dishes. After coating two dishes with non stick spray, I made a "sauce" mixture in the bottom by adding the following ingredients to each of the dishes: 1 cup tomato puree (from a can) 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion (you'll use about one medium onion total) 1 tsp dried Herbs de Provence 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper (NOTE: you'll need twice these proportions for both pans or for one large 9 x 13 pan.) I gently stirred everything together right in the dish and then spread it evenly to coat the bottom. I layered the vegetables into the dishes, alternating to nicely display the colors. I then drizzled the top with olive oil and dusted everything with kosher salt, black pepper and some more dried Herbs de Provence.

Per SmittenKitchen's suggestion, I cut a piece of parchment paper to sit atop the vegetables. They baked at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. (You don't want them to get brown or they will get mushy and mushy is what gives eggplant a bad name.) The smell as the ratatouille bakes is absolutely heavenly. When you spoon the vegetables out of the dish, you have a yummy sauce (cooked perfectly while baking) to spoon over the top. I could eat a plate full of the veggies alone for a meal but I served them alongside a piece of quickly seared yellowfin tuna, also dusted lightly with salt, pepper and Herbs de Provence and a big piece of toasted ciabatta bread rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Summery and delicious!

The next night, I used my left over ratatouille as a bed for a fried egg and enjoyed it "hash" style alongside an arugula salad with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and shaved parmesan. Definitely a keeper recipe. Will have to try it again when I have some fresh squash of my own from the garden!