Traditional Ratatouille

This recipe comes from the classic Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Ratatouille is a traditional French dish made of just vegetables and is traditionally used as a side or accompaniment for bland meats but for us vegans it is lovely with rice, potatoes or pasta or just as side dish. I'm planning on using my left overs for lasagne (just add bechamel sauce) or Ratatouille Quiche. With traditional ratatouille you need to cook all the vegetables separately so that when you layer them in the casserole dish they retain all their own flavors. That being said it's not a quick dish to make, it takes time but luckily it only gains in flavor overnight so it can be made in advance and then reheated. It can be served hot or cold. I replaced the zucchini with yellow squash because I had some on hand.

Traditional Ratatouille

Ingredients (in stages)

1lb eggplant (around 1 large)
1lb zucchini (around 3 medium)
1 tsp salt
4 Tbls olive oil

1/2 lb yellow onion, thinly sliced (around 1 1/2 cups)
2 sliced peppers (around 1 cup)
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 lb ripe tomatoes (around 5 medium)
salt and pepper

3Tbls mince parsley
Salt & pepper to taste


Method

Step One
Peel eggplant and slice into 2"x1"x1" rectangles.
Scrub zucchinis and slice in the same way.
Place both in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes.

Step Two
Onto a non-stick/cast iron skillet add around 2-3 Tbls olive oil and heat the onion and peppers on a low-medium setting for 5-10 minutes to get soft but not brown.

While they are heating up boil your tomatoes in water for 10 seconds to soften the skin. Remove and slice skin in an X at the base and peel away the skin then de-seed.

Slice the tomato pulp and add on top of the onion mixture allowing a couple of minutes for the juices to flow down.

Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and season with salt & pepper.
Remove to a separate dish and place 1/3 of the mixture into a stove proof casserole dish that has a lid. Sprinkle with 1/3 the parsley. Reuse pan for the eggplant and zucchini.

Step Three
Take the eggplant and zucchini out of the bowl where they should have sweat out some of their liquid. Place singly between two paper or kitchen towels to remove the excess liquid.

(Since you need to do this in batches I found it easier to do one vegetable at a time because I had two batches of each vegetable so it worked perfectly because you need to do two layers of these vegetables in the casserole dish.)
Add the olive oil to the skillet and on a low-medium heat sear the vegetables on both sides then add half of eggplant and zucchini onto the onion mixture in the casserole dish.

Step Four
Add second layer of 1/3 onion mix to casserole dish and sprinkle with 1/3 of parsley.
Add last layer of zucchini and eggplant.
Top with last layer of onion mix and sprinkle with last Tbls of parsley.
Cover and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes or until vegetables are soft. You want to check often to make sure the mix isn't sticking at the bottom and that the juices are being eveny distributed.
Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve!