Ratatouille!

Hi all,

The Ratatouille Recipe
by Marta Ferguson

The tomatoes get roasted separately here so that the other veggies have a chance to soak up the wine, olive oil, garlic, onion and herbs on their own. Roasting everything together tends to make the tomato flavor overwhelming instead of complementary. I've listed seeding as optional, as I really don't hold with the notion that the seeds make a sauce bitter. My sense is they bring a piquancy and freshness to a dish like this that's missing if the tomatoes are seeded.

12 cups of tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and chopped (seeding is optional)

6 cups of eggplant, chopped
6 cups of yellow squash, chopped
6 cups of zucchini, chopped
4 cups of carrots, chopped
4 cups of onions, chopped
12 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons+ of dried rosemary
2 tablespoons+ of dried thyme
1 tablespoon+ of dried sage

3/4 cup+ of olive oil
1 cup+ of white wine

salt to taste
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450.

In one or two large shallow roasting pans, lay out tomatoes and pour off excess liquid. Drizzle with wine and olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, thyme, and sage. Season with salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes for 30-45 minutes until liquid level is somewhat reduced and some blacking is evident on exposed edges of tomatoes.

In a separate roasting pan or pans, lay out other vegetables, drizzle generously with olive oil and white wine, stirring to coat. Sprinkle with rosemary, thyme, and sage. Season with salt and pepper. Roast vegetables for 30-45 minutes until everything is cooked through and some browning or blackening is evident on squash.

When roasting has finished, remove pans from oven and slowly ladle tomatoes into other vegetables, pouring off liquid as necessary so that the final consistency is more like roasted vegetables in a light sauce than vegetable soup.

Makes 6-8 quarts of ratatouille. Serve over rice or with good crusty bread. Add roasted beans and walnuts, loose ground sausage, or shredded Monterey Jack cheese to enhance protein content.

In boxes this week: yellow squash, zukes, cukes, onions, beans.

Food world news? The Time-for-Lunch Slow Food initiative to address the quality of school lunches is gathering steam. To find our more, click the link below:

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch/about/

See you next week!
;-)M