The (Dave) Woods Clan Ratatouille

Ha Ha (spoken with finality)! Finally, I've come to the point in which I could try my own ratatouille recipe. The original ratatouille recipe, like I said, was just summer vegitables (tomatoes, eggplant, and squashes) diced and saute'd until tender in a lot of olive oil. Now, after watching the movie of the same name, and examining what the rat did, I believed that the rat had a good idea about how to make ratatouille. Like every expiriment, I had to make an original recipe first, which is what the last post was about. But with that done, the diced tomatoes seemed lacking and too squishy for the recipe, but they did provide a great flavor, so I switched it to tomato sauce. Next I relized that the recipe needed some flavor. When a recipe needs flavor there are 3 things you can: sugar, fat, or spices. Guess which one is the healthiest. So I decided I need to come up with a good mixture of spices. After thinking about it, the only thing that seemed to fit, was rosemary, thyme, and basic. I eventually decided to add parsley to even out the spices. Next I had to figure out what vegies. So I went to the market and got whatever was on sale.

Next I had to think about how to arrange the seasonings and vegies. Do I mix it all together and call it good, or do I layer it. After watching the movie, I decided to try layering it. There's a problem. How do I layer it? So thinking about, I decided to let put the tomato sauce on the bottom. As the liquid starts to leak from the vegitables on top, it will cause the tomato sauce to become runny, this is actually to my advantage. It will cause the spices mixed into the tomato sauce to start traveling from the bottom of the pan to the top, and will bring up all the other spices along the way. This will cause all the flavors to mix together with out all the vegitables mixing together.

Needless to say, it turned out great. It took me and Sara all our effort to not finish off the large pan. I definately recommend it, or....um....I wouldn't have put it on this blog.

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 teaspoon of basil
3/4 teaspoon of thyme
3/4 teaspoon of rosemerry
1 1/4 teaspoon of parsley
2 8-oz cans of tomato sauce
1/4 cup of olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large eggplant, peeled, cut length-way into fourths, and thinly sliced
2 zucchini, peeled and thinly sliced
2 yellow squash, peeled and thinly sliced
2 green peppers, thinly sliced
1 cup of mushrooms (optional
3/4 teaspoon of salt, separated
parmesian cheese (for sprinkling)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the spices (basil, thyme, rosemerry, parsley). Mix 1 Tablespoon of the mixture to the tomato sauce. This should leave about 1/2 teaspoon left for later. lightly saute' the garlic until aromatic, set aside for later.

Grease a 9x13 inch pan with non-stick spray. Spread the tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan. Layer the eggplant on top of the tomato sauce. Spinkle the rest of the spices on top of the eggplant and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Layer the zucchini next, then the squash, then the green peppers, and any other vegies that you want. Sprinkle the rest of the salt on top.

Cook for 45 minutes. Sprinkle parmesian cheese on top and cook another 15 minutes. Serve hot with rice, noodles, or cooked potatoes.

Enjoy.