Saturday, August 29, 2015

#Recipe for Ratatouille from @PegCochran

By some good fortune, I came into possesion of a pack of Campari tomatoes (the ones that are between cherry tomatoes and regular ones in size) and a pack of those small, sweet colorful peppers.  What to make?  I decided on ratatouille which is a sort of French vegetable stew.  I added a zucchini, eggplant and red onion to the mix.

If you have an abundance of ripe tomatoes, and other jewels from your garden, this is a great way to use them.  It's easy and delicious and goes well with any kind of barbecued meat.

I didn't really use a recipe for this--just the memory of making it from Julia Child's recipe.  I don't have exact quantities either, but that's great right?  You can add more or less of your favorite veggies or the ones you have on hand.

I like to salt my eggplant to get out some of the bitter juice--simply cut into cubes, salt liberally and let it stand in a strainer while you prepare the rest of the vegetables (be sure to rinse the salt off and dry the cubes before using.) 


My lovely peppers and tomatoes





Slice your peppers and cut up your other veggies

Warm some oil in a sturdy pan--a Dutch oven works well--and add some chopped garlic and a tablespoon of herbes de provence and saute until colored.  Herbes de provence is a mixture of thyme, marjoram, rosemary, savory and optional dried lavender.





Add the rest of your vegetables and give it a good stir



Cover and simmer until vegetables have softened. If there is too much liquid, uncover and simmer a little longer.



Enjoy!

When Monica Albertson comes to Cranberry Cove—a charming town on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan—to help her half-brother Jeff on his cranberry farm, the last thing she expects to harvest is a dead body.

It seems that Sam Culbert, who ran the farm while Jeff was deployed overseas, had some juicy secrets that soon prove fatal, and Jeff is ripe for the picking as a prime suspect. Forming an uneasy alliance with her high-maintenance stepmother, Monica has her hands full trying to save the farm while searching for a killer. Culbert made plenty of enemies in the quaint small town…but which one was desperate enough to kill?

INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES!


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7 comments:

  1. I make a roasted version. I just cut up all of the vegetables, add quartered garlic cloves, toss with Italian seasoning and some olive oil. Then I spread the vegetables out on a sheet pan and roast, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft.

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    1. I'll have to try that! I love roasted vegetables.

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  2. Sounds good! The recipe and the book.

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  3. Ratatouille is a favorite, Peg. I'll give this version a try soon. The time is right!

    Hugs.

    MJ

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  4. Those colorful veggies look picture perfect.

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    1. They were so good! I'll miss them when summer's over.

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  5. Your post inspired me to get some pretty yellow tomatoes at our local farmers market today. Now I have to get the other veggies. Food should be fun to look at!

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