company ratatouille

so I've already written once about making ratatouille, which was yummy and flavorful and chunky-goulash-like. since we got a crazy amount of vegetables at the farmer's market last weekend, the pressure is on to cook and eat them all before time takes it's toll. we had such success with the last ratatouille night, yesterday I undertook Smitten Kitchen's version of rat-ta-too-ee-for-you-ee , altered to fit yoshimi's urgent need to use things she has in the 'fridge.

my ingredients:



I spent a goodly amount of time chopping vegetables. Smitten Kitchen tried to start out with vegetables that were mostly the same size so everything would look pretty and uniform in the casserole dish, but since I was using what I had on hand I just tried to work it out. it was during this activity that I saw the wisdom in husbin's desire for a mandolin slicer for Christmas. we will be updating our Amazon wish list.



I know. that's a lot of chopped up vegetable to go into one little casserole. that's what I was thinking, too. oy.

SK called for a tomato puree to go in the bottom of the casserole dish, but I had some vodka pasta sauce we needed to use so I combined that with about a quarter cup of crushed tomatoes. to that, in addition to the ingredients she listed, I added some extra vegetable bits I had after chopping (diced mushroom stems, red pepper, green onion).



I then arranged my vegetables as best I could on top of the sauce in the dish, drizzled with olive oil, and liberally sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a bit of dried thyme as I didn't have any fresh:



I cut out the parchment paper per SK's instructions, placed it in the dish to see that it totally fit, and was about to feel like a rockstar until I saw the little garlic cloves forlornly sitting there on the countertop and realized I'd forgotten to put them in. they're supposed to go into the sauce underneath all of the vegetables. my bad. so.... I chopped them up and sprinkled them on top. who's going to know the difference?



I once again applied the protective cover of parchment paper. which I did have on hand, thanks to last Christmas' challenging cookie experiment. into the oven with you, rat-ta-too-ee.



the leftover vegetables got chopped up and will most likely become a soup in the next few days... or a monster veggie fritatta...



and voila, fifty minutes later I took this out of the oven. even with mismatched vegetable sizes and non-traditional ratatouille ingredients like carrots and mushrooms, it came out looking nice and smelling awesome.




we took SK's advice and served it over rice, with a dollop of goat cheese on top. which was delish and, as far as I'm concerned, a crucial addition.



I just finished the leftovers and can vouch for it's 'next day' tastiness (especially with a bit of sriracha sauce). but the real moral to this story is... I love that there are so many recipes out there, and that they can be so fun and easy to adapt to what you've got and what you like.

tonight is Ethiopian cabbage again, by request. and spinach, because the freshness clock is ticking on those guys... brussel sprouts, okra, and green beans, I have my eye on you. and you, there, the globe-y green squash things, you're liable to be fried along with that okra if you'll just hang in there another day or two.

I've never been so full of vegetables. happily.