Fancy Fanned Ratatouille

In an effort to use up our summer vegetables, I decided to try making ratatouille. I love how the fanned vegetables looked in the animated movie of the same name; much more appealing to me than the chunked, more traditional form. Plus, it gave me a chance to use my mandoline.

Mandolines are great. They turn this ...

 ... into this!

I used eggplant, zucchini, tomato, onion, carrots, and green pepper in my ratatouille. Doesn't that look pretty enough to eat on its own? I wish I'd bought some yellow squash to use, too, but I forgot.

Pour a can of tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking (or, if you're from the midwest, a casserole or hotdish) dish.

Chop up some garlic and sprinkle that over the sauce. Add a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. And do yourself a favor. Sprinkle some sugar on, too. Not too much, but at least an equal amount to the salt. The sugar will help balance the acidity of the tomato sauce.

Again, I could just eat this. Warm it in the oven and slice up a loaf of crusty bread ... mmm.

Now it's time for your veggies to shine. Fan them out in the baking dish so they overlap in a pretty pattern.

Not as pretty as Remy's (his veggies were magically all the same size) but it'll do.

If you end up with extra vegetables, use them up in a soup or a stir-fry.

Season everything with salt and pepper. I also sprinkled on some fresh parsley and dried thyme, and gave it a nice splash of olive oil.

Cover your pan with foil or parchment paper, put it in a 375F oven, and walk away for an hour. When you come back, you'll have this.

I just can't stop looking at it. So pretty. So simple. So easy. But yet so delicious.

Gently spoon over cous cous or pasta and dig in. You'll be glad you did.














Recipe: Fancy Fanned Ratatouille
1 eggplant
1 zucchini
1 bell pepper
2 carrots
1/2 an onion
1-2 tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. sugar

herbs (I used fresh parsley and dried thyme, but you could use any herbs you like--Italian seasoning, dried parsley, basil, rosemary, etc.)

olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

With a mandoline or a sharp blade, thinly slice all vegetables.

Pour the tomato sauce into a casserole dish. Sprinkle with garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper.

Layer your vegetables in an overlapping pattern on top of the tomato sauce.

Sprinkle vegetables with herbs, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Cover vegetables with parchment paper or tinfoil. Roast in a 375F oven for 1 hour.

Serve with crusty bread and some sort of starch (polenta, cous cous, pasta, etc.)