Ratatouille

A friend came over today and we had some of my ratatouille for lunch. She liked it and I said I'd post the recipe, so here it is. I don't measure anything so this is really a guideline.



a large eggplant (aubergine), diced
a large zucchini (courgette), sliced
tomatoes, maybe 6 large ones, roughly chopped
a large onion or a couple of medium ones, chopped
garlic, 1 - 3 cloves, crushed
a couple of bell peppers - I like red, but you can use any colour - chopped
black olives - a few
herbs, fresh or dried (eg oregano, basil, thyme)
salt (the good stuff please, either seasalt or Himalayan)
black pepper
olive oil

I start with a good dose of olive oil - enough to cover the bottom of a large saucepan. Warm it up, but don't let it smoke. Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes, then add the eggplant. Eggplant is like a sponge, it'll soak up that oil like crazy. Then toss in the rest of the ingredients and simmer it for a long time - say an hour. It benefits from long cooking. In fact, it'll probably taste even better if you let it cool and warm it up and eat it the next day.

Good on its own, or with salad, bread, noodles, whatever.