Roasted ratatouille

I’d read about a quick and easy recipe for a roasted ratatouille, so thought I would use the last of my peppers from the garden, and a couple of tomatoes I’d picked earlier, and give it a try.

It’s strange, but my tomato crop really hasn’t been that good this year. Last year I had loads, but when I did get tomatoes this year they often didn’t make it to maturity. Talking to friends here, I found they have not had great crops either, so I’m not feeling that I’d done anything particularly wrong, it was just not a great year for tomatoes.

Back in the kitchen I chopped all of my crop of red peppers, my two tomatoes (along with some more I’d been given) along with a mixture of chopped onions, garlic, courgettes and aubergine. It’s best to chop them into similar sizes, as it looks better and they cook more evenly.

They all went into a large roasting pan with lots of glugs of olive oil, plenty of salt, pepper and thyme. I then mixed it together, and popped it into the oven at 180°c, to roast off slowly. It needs to cook for about 90 mins, but be sure to stir it every 30 minutes or so to mix in all the crispy roasted bits. These make the juices really sweet and tasty.

I found this such an easy way to cook ratatouille, a slow, no fuss approach. The recipe does add balsamic to it at the end, but I didn’t do that, I prefer the freshness of the vegetables. It was way too much for the two of us to eat in one meal, so I’ve frozen some of it in bags for later. I’m thinking it will make a great base sauce for pasta, maybe add a tin of tomatoes or I may make a vegetable lasagne. Delicious!