Remy’s ratatouille

Serves:

Ingredients

• olive oil spray
• 2  lebanese eggplants, sliced
• 2 small zucchini, sliced
• 3 roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• ½ red capsicum, finely diced
• 1 cup tomato passata
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• freshly chopped basil leaves, to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Slice eggplants, zucchini and tomatoes into rounds about 2-3 mm thick.

Spray the base on an oven proof dish with olive oil.

At one end of the dish start 4-5 lines with pieces of eggplant, then layer a slice of zucchini over each piece of eggplant, then layer a slice of tomato over the zucchini.

This is the quickest way to do the layering; you can grab 4-5 pieces of each vegetable at a time and work on each line.

When you have finished your master piece, spray with olive oil and then bake for 30 minutes until soft.

Meanwhile, sauté onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until starting to colour, add capsicum and cook for about 5 minutes until soft.
Add tomato passata and simmer for about 20 minutes.

To serve, use a 2cm wide spatula or a knife, to lift up a ‘layer’ of roasted vegetables and arrange in a circle, ala Remy. It’s a bit hot, be careful.

Then drizzle with tomato and capsicum sauce and the basil leaves.

Notes:

• Probably I am one of very few who thinks it’s a great idea to recreate Remy’s signature dish from the movie. Who knows, it might get your kids eating these robust vegetables!
• If you cannot possibly bear the thought of arranging all the vegetables, just chop them up into 2 cm chunks, sauté the onion first, add the rest of the ingredients and bake for about 1 hour.
• I served this with steak, the tomato sauce works nicely with both meat and veg.
• Ratatouille is also lovely with roast lamb.
• Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

Serving Suggestions

Note