An amazingly delicious recipe for ratatouille that is slow-roasted - a perfect way to pack plenty of vegetables onto your dinner plate! You will LOVE this!
oven safe skillet or tart pan 12 to 18 inches in diameter (size will vary depending on thickness of vegetable slice and size of vegetables)
Ingredients
For the puree
1onion, chopped
2carrots, chopped
2celery stalks, chopped
1tablespoongarlic, minced
1red bell pepper
1poblano pepper and 2 chili peppers
28ozcrushed tomatoes
basil leaveshandful
1teaspoonsalt
1/2teaspoonpepper
1teaspoonherb de Provance
For the sliced vegetables
2Japanese eggplantssliced thinly
6Roma tomatoes sliced thinly
2yellow squashsliced thinly
2green zucchinisliced thinly
For the topping
2tablespoonsolive oil
1 or 2 clovesgarlicminced
1teaspoonthyme leaveschopped (I used dried but fresh would be better)
salt and pepperto taste
Instructions
For the puree
Add oil to a large saute pan and then add and cook the onion, celery, carrots and garlic over medium heat until softened (until a fork can be easily inserted into the carrots)
In the meantime, char the peppers under the broiler or on an outdoor grill until charred on all sides (rotate to blacken all sides) (see this post)
Place the charred peppers in a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap or in a ziploc bag until cooled, then peel off skins
Add softened vegetables (carrot, celery, onion, garlic), canned tomatoes, peppers, basil, herbs and salt/pepper to blender and puree the mixture
To prepare the dish for baking
Preheat oven to 280 F (140 C)
Spread the puree on the bottom of an oven safe skillet or tart pan and then arrange the sliced eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini in a swirl fashion on top
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Combine the olive oil, garlic and thyme and then drizzle on top of vegetables
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 3 hours
At this point, it is recommended to refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to marry and mingle
To serve, heat oven to 350 F (175 C) and bake uncovered for 45 minutes (if cold) or 20 minutes or warm/hot