I had some baby zucchini in my fridge along with lots of sweet peppers,
so decided to make the stewed vegetable dish that was made famous by a rodent in
a movie by the same name…Ratatouille. Wikipedia provides the correct pronunciation of this colourful dish:
Ratatouille ( rat-ə-TOO-ee) is a traditional
French Provencal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish
is ratatouille niçoise.
Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish, but also may be served as
a meal on its own accompanied by pasta, rice or bread. Tomatoes are a key ingredient, with
garlic, onions, courgette (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant), bell peppers, marjoram and basil, or bay leaf and thyme, or a mix of green herbs like herbes de Provence. Ratatouille is a dish extremely popular with
dieters since not only is it low in fat and calories, but it's high in nutrients.
Ingredients:
- 5 baby (4-5 inch long or about 10 cm) zucchini, sliced cross-wise into bite-sized pieces
- 1 large cooking onion, peeled, halved and sliced
- 2 sweet red peppers, gutted and sliced
- 1 large clove of garlic, smashed and finely chopped ( or more, to taste)
- 1 small tin of cherry tomatoes ( or about a cup and a half of fresh tomatoes, chopped)
- herbs and salt and pepper to taste ( I used some sprigs of fresh thyme and marjoram)
- tablespoon of olive oil for sauteing
Place all ingredients in a saute pan and cook over moderate heat until all of the vegetables are softly stewed. You can use this as an omelet
or crepe filling, or as I did, a vegetable side dish. You’ll notice that I omitted the
aubergine; despite its lovely sounding name, it ends up rather greyish when
cooked. Ratatouille isn’t exactly a glamourous dish and needs all the
help it can get when it comes to looks.
