By Courtney

Right now in my refrigerator and on my counters I have: eggplant, onions, shallots, garlic, tomatoes, basil, and red and green peppers. Flipping through my beloved Mediterranean cookbook, trying to figure out what to do with the bounty, I saw a recipe for ratatouille. I’ve never eaten ratatouille before, but it looked delicious, and I wasn’t about to let my lack of zucchini stop me from trying it.

However, the recipe I had looked pretty labor-intensive and called for cooking the vegetables separately and to different degrees. I didn’t have time for that today, so I broiled the entire dish until it was soupy, charred, and aromatic.

I’ve yet to try ratatouille, but I assume this dish is very similar. It has a thick, stew-like consistency, and a delicious, sweet aftertaste.  It makes a great vegetarian entree or a side dish, either with a grain-like accompaniment or not. (I served it with quinoa.)

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 onion, halved and sliced into quarter-inch rings
• 3 large (about 1.5 pounds) tomatoes, cored and seeded, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh  basil
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• Salt and pepper to taste (about a teaspoon and quarter teaspoon, respectively)

Method:

1. Preheat your broiler to high (if you have that option) and move the oven rack so that your pan will be about 5 inches from the heat source.
2. Toss everything but the chicken stock together in a heavy-bottomed cake pan or on a good-quality sheet pan. I used a cast-iron roasting pan, and it worked awesomely.
3. Broil the vegetables for 5-10 minutes, until those facing the heat begin to char.
4. Stir the vegetables, and replace under the broiler until those facing the heat begin to char.
5. Repeat until the vegetables have reduced by half.
6. Remove from the oven, pour the chicken stock over the vegetables, and cover with aluminum foil. Let rest for 1 hour, or until the vegetable juices and chicken stock have thickened into a stew-like consistency or a veggie gravy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Blogs, Healthy Meal Ideas, The Tight Rope. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.