Ratatouille

In search of a healthy meal and missing my Moosewood Cookbook (which is in some storage box), I went online looking for a ratatouille recipe and found the roasted version from the Moosewood Simple Suppers Cookbook on another blog. I stole an idea from my Moosewood book's "Pepper and Onion Shortcake" recipe and served the ratatouille on cornbread sliced in half, like an open faced sandwich. It was delicious! The cornbread is a cheap and delicious way to make the ratatouille go for longer (it is tasty, but the vegetables are expensive if you want to eat enough to get filled up) and the Robber and I agreed that it added and did not take away from the vegetables even if the French are flopping over in their graves at the idea. We topped it all off with grated Romano cheese and it was a wholesome, warm Sunday meal.

The website I got this from is a little pretentious... but... I'll take it:

http://www.thedcladies.com/2010/03/ratatouille-from-moosewood.html

Ingredients:

1 zucchini (I used 3 green, 2 yellow)

3 onions (I used two)

1 eggplant

2 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

6 garlic cloves

1/3 C. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

1 C. packed fresh basil leaves

Grated Romano, Pecorino Romano, or Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Chop all plants except basil into 1" chunks. Toss the chopped ingredients with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. (Note, you will probably have to use two bowls to do this.)

2. Pre-heat oven to 450F. Spread vegetables out over two large cookie sheets. It is smart to put foil on the cookie sheets first as it makes cleaning the pans much easier.

3. Roast the vegetables at 450F for 15 minutes, then turn them and roast for an additional 25-30 minutes, stirring/turning occasionally until vegetables are soft.

4. While roasting, chop the basil leaves finely. Remove vegetables from oven and transfer to bowl. Stir in basil leaves.

5. Serve over cornbread and sprinkle Romano cheese on top as desired.

Notes: Peeling the eggplant is optional.