Ratatouille

For the long Labor Day weekend, I flew home to Buffalo for the first time in almost 8 months. Thankfully, Wegman’s in Fairfax, VA stocks most WNY goodies like Sahlen’s hot dogs, Weber’s mustard and Bison French Onion dip so I’ve kept my WNY cravings to what I thought was a healthy level. Apparently, my math skills are rustier than I thought and I miscalculated. If I listed what I ate, you’d think I’d turned into an eating machine. And I’d be kind of mortified. But c’est la vie. I came, I saw and I feasted. Except now my clothes are a little snug. So I’m turning to a different kind of comfort food: ratatouille.

When I first started my foray into the world of cooking, roasted vegetables were my bread and butter so to speak. There’s a certain level of comfort in chopping zucchini, tomatoes and other vegetables because it’s mindless. Ratatouille involves dicing the vegetables into bite-size pieces, tossing the veggies in olive oil and letting the skillet do its thing. You don’t really need to think and over-analyze the recipe. It’s a go-with-the-flow meal.

Plus, it’s vegetables, olive oil, a bit of salt + pepper, red pepper flakes and basil. Your waistline will be just as happy as Remy the mouse from Ratatouille when he’s cooking. Which, by the way, I finally watched for the first time this summer and it was just as adorable as I thought it would be.

Ingredients

2 zucchinis, diced

1 small red onion, diced

1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, halved

1 red bell pepper diced

2 garlic cloves, diced

1/2 small eggplant, diced

Salt, pepper + red pepper flakes to taste

Olive oil

Directions

1. In a skillet, heat olive oil over a medium-low heat. Once heated through, add the red onion, red bell pepper and zucchinis to the skillet. Toss to evenly coat with olive oil.

2. In another skillet, heat olive oil over a medium-low heat. Place eggplant in the skillet and add olive oil to prevent sticking. Let the eggplant cook for about 8 minutes.

3. Once the eggplant is cooked, add the eggplant, tomatoes and garlic to the main skillet.

4. Stir and let the skillet simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. Stir a couple of times.

5. Serve, garnish with basil.