Summer Ratatouille – Madison Eats Food Tours
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Summer ratatouille

Summer Ratatouille

I play favorites. Not with my kids, but with our chickens. The blond one is sooooo cute! And, like most blonds, smart. She follows me around the yard, and lets me pick her up.

Oh, wait this is supposed to be a recipe post. Well, the chicken digression is not completely ludicrous. It’s all about their eggs. An egg turns almost any dish into a meal.

Take my recent summer obsession, ratatouille, for example. To be honest, I have never looked at a recipe so for all I know I am making stew or sauce.

But when someone leaves a bag of tomatoes on my front stoop (thank you, neighbor!) and my friend at market gives me a screaming deal on eggplants (thanks, Brian), another farmer gives me a heap of not-quite-perfect garlic (thanks, Willi) and zucchini are a dime a dozen (thanks amazing farmers), what am I to do? I make a slow cooked, simmering pot of summer. Then I proceed to eat it cold, warm, plain, on pasta, with cheese, with chicken, on bread and, yes, with a fried egg on top.

I guess I play favorites in the kitchen, too.

Simmered Summer Ratatouille

Ingredients* :

Olive oil

1 medium eggplant, diced and soaked in salt water**

1 zucchini, diced

8-10 tomatoes, chopped

1 sweet red bell pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 large onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

any fresh herbs such as parsley, basil, oregano

1/2 cup white wine

salt and pepper to taste

* Quantities here are just guidelines…

** I soak my eggplant in salt water for about 20 minutes before cooking, but some people argue it’s not necessary.

Method:

Heat olive oil in deep skillet

Add onions and sautee until softened.

Add in other vegetables and cook, covered on very low heat until very soft, about 2 hours.

Add fresh herbs, garlic and wine and continue to cook until the concoction is thick, and not watery about another 30 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Devour.