Ratatouille

I'm excited to share my first recipe! Although I am very bummed it is not "Ellen's super awesome black bean salsa." Joe's camera is holding those pictures hostage until we find the battery charger. It will come though, I promise.

Anyway, on to Ratatouille. Now, if you are like me, you had no idea what Ratatouille was until you saw the very adorable Pixar/Disney movie. I love it. However, since Remy didn't post a recipe at the end of the movie, I had to ask Mimi. (Remy is the little rat in the movie, Mimi is the soon to be mother-in-law)

So, this is what you need, more or less.

The recipe calls for:

1 eggplant, cubed

1 large zucchini, cubed (I used two small ones)

2 medium yellow squash, cubed (the grocery didn't have any, so I had to use one, slightly old, leprosy ridden squash)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 small green pepper, coarsely chopped (mine was not so small)

1 small sweet yellow pepper, coarsely chopped (again, not so small)

1 small red pepper, coarsely chopped (kind of small)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 (14.5 oz) cans of fancy tomato wedges, undrained (I don't have a clue what these are, so I used two cans of peeled, diced tomatoes)

1/2 cup of dry white wine (I don't drink white wine, so I don't know what kind is dry- I used Riesling)

1/3 cup small pitted olives

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of dried Italian seasoning

1 bay leaf

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff out of the green can)

If you have these totally awesome bowls from William-Sonoma, you can do this with all your chopped, cubed, and minced veggies.

Saute the eggplant zucchini and yellow squash in hot oil in a large Dutch oven (giggle) over medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes (We don't have a Dutch oven yet- it's on the registry!- so I just used the biggest pan we have, which wasn't big enough)

Add the peppers, onions, and garlic and saute for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Look at the pretty colors!

Add the tomatoes, wine, olives, salt, Italian seasoning, and the bay leaf. Stir, cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender. (I don't have a picture of this step because my pan was overflowing and I had to divide it between two pans.)

After the 15 minutes, discard the bay leaf and transfer the ratatouille to a large serving dish. (Or keep it in the pan)

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

It may look a little bit like throw up, but it is so good!! I sauteed some ground turkey and added it before I served it. I hadn't done that before, but it was very good and I will do it again.

I feel so healthy eating it- I was getting about 98 servings of veggies!