Dear lonely blog, I abandoned you for so long. Life got busy, I cooked less, ate even worse and now I am ready to return. Seriously. I finished school and before I get stuck in a vicious cycle of work I'm cooking almost every day. Also, I've become vegetarian. Yeah, I know, a lot has changed. So welcome back!
First up, ratatouille!!! Caught myself watching Ratatouille and becoming inspired to actually try my hand at it. And it was GOOD. Now YOU go make it!
Baked Ratatouille
from Vmac & Cheese
Ingredients:
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- –pinch crushed red pepper flake
- 1 medium-large zucchini
- 1 medium-large yellow zucchini
- 1 orange heirloom tomato [I omitted this one!]
- 4 medium vine tomatoes
- 1 small Japanese eggplant [Definitely recommended]
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- –Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to season [I use the regular stuff]
For garnish:
–Asiago or your choice of cheese [I did Parmesan Reggiano and mozzarella]
–Fresh basil, julienned
Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 400°.
In a medium skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and let cook for a minute until soft. Add in half of the chopped garlic, the crushed red pepper flake, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring occassionally. Prep the vegetables.
Slice the vegetables to your desired thickness. You'll see I went super thin. I'll probably go a little thicker next time seeing as how my tomatoes just refused to be sliced as thin as everything else. Yes, it did drive me a little nuts in the end.
–Asiago or your choice of cheese [I did Parmesan Reggiano and mozzarella]
–Fresh basil, julienned
Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 400°.
In a medium skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and let cook for a minute until soft. Add in half of the chopped garlic, the crushed red pepper flake, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring occassionally. Prep the vegetables.
Slice the vegetables to your desired thickness. You'll see I went super thin. I'll probably go a little thicker next time seeing as how my tomatoes just refused to be sliced as thin as everything else. Yes, it did drive me a little nuts in the end.
Once the onions are soft, add in the tomato paste to the pan. Let it warm and melt into the onions. Transfer the onion mixture to the bottom of your baking dish, and drizzle with a tablespoon or so of olive oil.
Arrange the vegetables in any pattern you would like, alternating colors. Sprinkle the rest of the garlic over the top of the arranged vegetables, then season the whole thing with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a bit more olive oil.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the mixture is very bubbly and the vegetables look tender. Remove the dish from the oven, and turn your broiler on to high. Layer shaved or sliced cheese on top of the cooked vegetables, then bake underneath the broiler until the cheese gets bubbly and brown. Let the dish sit for a couple minutes, garnish with freshly chopped basil, and serve.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the mixture is very bubbly and the vegetables look tender. Remove the dish from the oven, and turn your broiler on to high. Layer shaved or sliced cheese on top of the cooked vegetables, then bake underneath the broiler until the cheese gets bubbly and brown. Let the dish sit for a couple minutes, garnish with freshly chopped basil, and serve.
Tine's Notes: As you can see from my pictures, I sliced my veggies super thin. By hand. [Don't worry, I still have all my fingers intact.] I'm a bit of a masochist like that. Don't worry, I have a mandolin on my Amazon wish list. I followed the recipe pretty much at a T, I used 2 types of cheese to top since that's what I had on hand - Parm Reggiano and mozzarella. I had so many veggies that I had this dish plus a 6x6 pyrex filled to the brim. I actually added more pepper and red pepper flakes to the onions at the bottom of the smaller dish and it really shined through to my liking.
No comments:
Post a Comment