NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE RATATOUILLE WITH ALL LOCALLY GROWN INGREDIENTS!!
Ingredients for the RATATOUILLE
The bell peppers were from our garden, the zucchini and onions were grown by Full Plate CSA and the plum tomatoes and baby eggplant were bought from Mandville Farm at the Farmer’s Market.
I decided to do something new with the ratatouille that would allow people to pick and choose their vegetables. I sliced and fried the onions in olive oil until they were well cooked, brown and caramelized. The onions were then evenly spread in an ovenproof 8X12 or so dish.
I then cut the peppers into 4 or 5 strips lengthwise and cooked them also until they were slighly charred and well cooked. They were then spread over the onions in a neat row.
Next I cut the eggplant in half lengthwise(no need to peel or salt or anything fussy) and fried them also until they were almost cooked and slightly brown. They were also attractively laid over the onions in a neat row.
I cut the zucchini into think slices widthwise and made nice rows of with my two medium sized eggplants. I didn’t precook them since I like them to be a little crunchy.
Finally, I skinned the tomatoes by putting them briefly in boiling water and then removing them and skinning them. I cut them in half lenthwise and arranged them attractively on or around the vegetables. Make sure all the vegetables are properly salted.
I used dry bread to make breadcrumbs and mixed about 1/2 cup with 1 TBS of dijon mustard, 1 or 2 crushed large garlic clove and 2-3 TBS olive oil. I did this in my mini food processor but you can also do it by hand. Spread this over the vegetables and bake at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until beginning to brown.
This is best made the day before, refrigerated and reheated. You can serve this room temperature or bring it to room temperature and then warm it up briefly under a broiler.
The beauty of this presentation is that the eggplant haters or those of us that can’t eat peppers can partake only of their favored parts of the ratatouille.
