On Tuesday I test drove Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Ratatouille's Ratatouille (try saying that 5 times fast). I made a few alterations to their version and it went a little something like this: 1/2 onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1 cup tomato puree (I used Redpack) 1 tablespoons olive oil 1 small eggplant (Italian or baby) 1 smallish zucchini 1 smallish yellow squash 1 red bell pepper 2 tomatoes salt & pepper dried thyme 1/4 cup grated parmesan soft cheese, melted slightly
(These directions basically come from Smitten Kitchen, credit where credit is due.)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, about 10 inches long. Drop in sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion and season the sauce with salt and pepper.
Trim the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube. Gently slice off the top and bottom of the tomato.
Using a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, tomato and red pepper into very thin slices (not paper-thin, maybe 1/6th of an inch or so).
Arrange slices of prepared vegetables from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables (see picture above).
Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with the salt, pepper and thyme.
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside your baking dish.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables are cooked but still have some structure left. You should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
Give the veggies a liberal sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and serve. Serve with a dab of soft cheese on top (slightly melted), with some couscous.
Thanks to Remy from Disney's Ratatouille and Smitten Kitchen for this inspired dish.
