Ratatouille

In an earlier blog I mentioned ratatouille as one of the one of many dishes I like with zucchini. The Wikipedia description says it is a French dish with herbs de la providence. I’m not sure if my mother ever made it quite that way. Actually I’m not sure if she ever made it the same way twice. For that matter I’m not sure if I have either. When I first moved out on my own I lived on my own and worked 2 to 3 jobs. I often would make one dish and add to it as it went down. I often did this with chili in the winter starting with a vegetarian one and eventually adding meat some time during the week. In the summer I would start with a ratatouille and end up with some kind of garden meat spaghetti sauce. Either went with noodles or rice. It made cooking easy while still adding a bit of variety.

Ratatouille

• Egg plant, diced
• Onion, diced
• Pepper, green or red diced
• Zucchini, diced
• Tomatoes, fresh or canned crushed (do not drain)
• Italian herb mix
• Salt, pepper, & sugar
• olive oil (or other oil or butter)
  

Soak eggplant in salted water. Drain and rinse. Sauté onion in olive oil, add herbs, pepper, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes. Test to see if salt, pepper, or sugar need to be added. Simmer until all vegetables are tender. Serve as a side dish or over rice or pasta.

Tomatoes can be either acidy or sweet. If the ratatouille seems tart a pinch or so of sugar can remove the acid taste. Add the sugar in small amounts slowly allowing it to mix and cook in before adding more. Adding too much will give the dish more of a relish taste.