Our garden is literally coming out of our ears at this point. It is wildly out of control. The cherry tomatoes and squash have crawled out of our garden bed and taken over our deck. Literally, taken over! My deck is a scene straight out of the Tarzan movie. It’s been somewhat of a surprise that our peppers and other vegetables are even surviving the take over. My husband is chomping at the bit to rip that garden out and retake his deck. When you don’t do the grocery shopping, I guess you stop appreciating the beauty of free produce.
In the mean time, I am trying to do whatever I can to use up all those tasty vegetables I’ve been growing all summer. No matter what I do, it seems I can’t keep up with those darn tomatoes. Earlier in the week I even tried to make a dent in the vegetable supply by making one of my chili recipes. Not good enough, so here I am again, trying to keep those sweet veggies from going to waste. Since I’ve already eaten my weight in chili, put together some salsa, and made some tomato juice, I needed a new way to use up a ton of veggies. RATATOUILLE! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.
I am relatively new to making ratatouille, only a year or two. A few years back I tried it at a local restaraunt and now I’ve been using on crostini, pasta and polenta. All of which are delicious combos. While I don’t feel ratatouille is a perfect dish on its own, I think it’s a super versatile dish to help clean out the fridge. While I usually try to stick to a traditional recipe, I’m not opposed to adding/excluding various vegetable depending what I have on hand. For instance this recipe includes mushrooms because I had a container ready to turn.
I whipped out my dutch oven so I could make a big pot. The nice thing is this is a one pot dish so you won’t be left with a sink full of dishes. This recipes can be cut down or increased depending how many mouths you are feeding or how many vegetables you need to use up. In the fridge, store in an air tight container to add to your pasta, polenta, or rice.
Garden Vegetable Ratatouille
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large eggplant, cubes
- 1 medium zucchini, cubed
- 1 yellow squash, cubed
- 1 green, red, or yellow pepper
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
- 3 cups cherry tomatoes or 3 chopped large tomatoes
- 1/2 cup tomato pasta sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- Optional – crostini for serving
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Heat a large pan or dutch oven over medium heat. Coat the bottom with olive oil. Add eggplant, zucchini, squash, and pepper. Season with salt and pepper and stir frequently. Allow to cook for approximately 8 minutes or until they start to soften and get lightly browned.
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Add onion and garlic, cooking for an additional 3-4 minutes or until slightly softened.
- Add mushrooms, tomatoes, sauce, tomato paste, sugar, and fresh herbs. Allow to simmer over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, allowing the tomatoes to break down.
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Season with additional salt and pepper as needed.
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Serve with crostini, pasta, or polenta.
