Slow Roasted Ratatouille

Slow Roasted Ratatouille ready to go into the oven

Things have been a little on the slow side this past couple weeks, cake wise, so I thought I would share a very yummy recipe variation that i came up with. Well, I'm sure that I am not the first person to have decided to roast my ratatouille instead of stewing it, but I had no outside inspiration, so I am claiming this recipe. As some of you may know, we eat a lot of vegetarian meals. I love vegetables, and I'm not so crazy about meat, but some of my family members are the opposite. However, when I make this ratatouille, everyone is satisfied. I normally serve it with a garlic parmesan polenta, which is sooooo tasty, but I have been trying to cut back on my grain consumption, so I am thinking that next time I might serve this with garlic parmesan mashed butternut squash.... or potatoes...or cauliflower... or maybe just a giant salad on the side....

Anyway, here's what you need and what you need to do:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Vegetables: I normally like to use Eggplant, Yellow squash, Tomato, Zucchini, BellPeppers of various colors and sizes, and Onion. You can also use mushrooms, but we are super picky about mushrooms around here, so we don't normally go there. Amounts don't matter so much, just that you have a good variety, and if you are making this for your main dish, like I normally do, a good amount as well.

I chop up all of my vegetables in somewhat uniform sizes and put it all in a big bowl, then toss with a good bit of olive oil (1/4 cup or so, at least), a bit of sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and some fresh garlic (I use a tablespoon or so, but I make big batches). Spread this out onto a nice, large baking sheet that has been oiled with olive oil, and place into the oven. Bake for about an hour.

Meanwhile, chop up some fresh herbs. I like to use Basil, Oregano, and Thyme. The amounts are up to you, but I like to use about 3 T chopped Basil, 2T chopped Oregano, and 1 T Thyme, leaves stripped off the stems.

After that first hour, remove your ratatouille from the oven and stir in your herbs. The veggies on the outer edges should be stirred into the middle, and the veggies in the middle stirred to the outer edges. This keeps all the veggies roasting to the same degree of "cookedness", but it doesn't have to be done perfectly to achieve this goal.

Put your ratatouille back into the oven for another 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how browned you like your veggies. They will be ready to remove when there is no liquid on the bottom of the pan, and the veggies are lightly browned.

After removing from the oven, stir in 1 - 2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce and place in a bowl to keep warm until serving time. Serve on a bed of something (fried eggs, maybe!?), and top with freshly grated parmesan. Man, I'm getting hungry!

For the Garlic Parmesan Polenta:
I am no polenta expert, so I may have this ALL wrong... but this is what I do:

I could not find anything labeled "polenta" anywhere here (unless it was the precooked, in a tube stuff), so I ended up buying some yellow cornmeal. I can't remember the brand, but on the back of the box it has a recipe for cornmeal mush, which resembles very closely the recipe for polenta. THAT's how I cooked mine.... except when it was almost done, I stirred in a few cloves of minced garlic and about 12 cup parmesan cheese. When it was completely done, I stirred in a handful of mozzarella. It's super cheesy, and when I serve this with the ratatouille, I do not put cheese on top, but feel free to do as you wish.

So, there you have it. If you try this out, let me know how it works out for you :)

OH, and sorry I did not have a photo of the finished product. We ate it before I could even think to take one!