Ratatoutille
Ra Ta Toooo EEEe! Flexibile and versatility, this dish ups the cooking ante with a way to learn and use knife skills as you test your flavor buds on a colorful recipe wrapped as a burrito filling, roll in crepes or omelettes, made as a side, a snack, an entree, lunch or dinner . Just don't forget it on the midnight run to the fridg!
When I set out to write this blog this morning I was psyched about returning to yesterday, making this dish inspiring about cooking and fun. As I multi-tasked between computer screens, reading the news and piles of magazine articles, I typed away rhapsodically about the French country side and my experiences cooking. Suddenly I became aggravated with what I was seeing. The harmony took a different direction to annoying dissonance.
The last decade plus has seen Americans and many parts of the world exchange cooking for other ways to occupy that time. To some with agendas on selling marked down versions of cooking backed by worthless products, they accuse cooking and decent fresh food enthusiasts of becoming 'elitist!'Beware the hidden agendas! I am the first to understand if one does not like to cook, but remember others do. To each his fair choice. Often music, travel, the web, workouts, family or business needs supplant our interests, especially if you approach cooking with glum or as a meaningless task. Realize though that today with terrific information, cooking can offer an awareness of how the correct food can make you and your body a living ball of great health. When you do not cook you lose that connection. Turn it over to manufacturers, marketers and restaurants without personal knowledge of how to make choices that keep you in great shape and you might as well set aside a whole lot more of your harder earned money to piss away soon on paid calls to 'Consult your practioner' when you order!
Vegetable Alchemy holds a way of eating that says: long life, even weight, feeling great. It's obvious the day has only 24 hours with loads of demands that take us from a kitchen designed five hundred hears ago, with recipes scribed when life was far, far more simple. But I can see in this conundrum an opportunity I will soon share, whether you cook or not. For many of us, low impact, smart food offers the finest way to live fantastically, enjoyably, reasonably regardless if economies come or go. Think of knowledge earned as savings invested, your annuity to healthy living.
Part of that is Ratatoutille, a playful, plate of great tasty health. While this is one example of many versions on the web, if you're not into cooking, why do it? Call a spot where get a quart size of this wonder dish and enjoy eating in or for portable fun!
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more as needed
1 1/2 cups small diced yellow onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups medium diced eggplant, skin on
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 cup diced green bell peppers
1 cup diced red bell peppers
1 cup diced zucchini squash
1 cup diced yellow squash
1 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Set a large 12-inch saute pan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Once hot, toss the onions and garlic in the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they are wilted and lightly caramelized, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove to a large bowl. Repeat warming the pan and adding a little oil for each of the vegetables in the ingredient list, cooking each individually and adding to the bowl. When you have finished with the squash, repeat with a litte olive oil, add the tomatoes, then basil, parsley, and salt and pepper, to taste. Cook for a final 5 minutes. Return all the vegetables from the bowl to warm together with the tomato mix and serve either hot or at room temperature. Cooking the vegetables individually helps retain the freshness which will be evident in your first to last mouthful!
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