This week, because we literally had our hands full with eggplant, the challenge to creatively utilize this purple bounty continues. We walked away from the farm with not only a sizable Rosa Bianca, but also a few Long Purples (depicted above) and a Casper, which is a small, white eggplant with a very sweet flavor. None of the recipes in the weekly CSA newsletter called for such a massive amount of eggplant in one dish. And since eggplant loses its texture and firmness with each passing day, we needed to use them all up quickly.
Our saving grace was a French dish called ratatouille, originally a poor farmer’s solution to excess summer produce. Ironically, the original recipe didn’t include eggplant, but today, ratatouille is almost unrecognizable without it . Zucchini, tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, onions, and garlic were used to make the first manifestations of this dish, and luckily for us, we had all these ingredients in stock as well.
There are a variety of ways to make ratatouille but all agree on one thing: the ingredients are cooked in stages, then combined and left to stew. Slow cooking allows the flavors to interact, and the final product makes a unique contribution to any dinner table (as well as fantastic leftovers!).
4-6 servings
- 2-3 lbs eggplant, 1″ cubes (we recommend using several varieties of eggplant if you can)
- 1.5 lbs tomatoes, in chunks
- 8 oz tomato sauce (homemade directly from tomatoes, if possible)
- 1 zucchini, 1″ cubes (use more as desired)
- 1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic (more or less as desired)
- 1 tbsp Herbes de Provence (basil, thyme and parsley)
- salt and pepper, to taste
1. Place Dutch over medium heat. Add 1-2 tbsp olive oil, adjusting as needed. (Ratatouille usually contains a good deal of olive oil, but we prefer to keep it lighter.)
2. Add the ingredients in stages, allowing one to cook briefly before adding the next, as follows: onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, tomato sauce, eggplant, zucchini, herbs, salt and pepper.
3. Stir constantly until eggplant and zucchini become tender.
4. Allow to simmer for 1-2 hours. Taste it regularly and monitor the moisture content. Add water, vegetable broth or tomato sauce if necessary until the dish is ready to serve.
The order in which you cook the ingredients varies across recipes. We suspect it’s because different ingredients demand different cooking times, and how you order them affects their texture in the final dish. We were pleased with our version of ratatouille, but if you know of any other way to make it, please share!
