After a full two weeks or so of eating crappy crap due to my oven being smokey, this past weekend I figured I'd make something tasty and healthy for dinner. I made Ratatouille once over the summer, but seeing as I was exhausted after a weekend of drinking and pumpkin picking (Not at the same time, mind you), I decided to be lazy and let my trusty crock pot do my work for me.
It also didn't hurt that I was really in the mood to watch the movie "Ratatouille". Couldn't tell you why for the life of me.
Ratatouille
Recipe Source: One of the crock pot cookbooks I
Some Recommended Kitchen Music: End Creditouille, Michael Giacchino (Yes, I am in fact that predictable)
Ingredients: Quick note - I was a moron and chopped up almost everything before I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the ingredients I used, so please enjoy this tasteful artist's rendition.
1 large eggplant (1.5 lbs), cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt
1 medium-size yellow onion, coarsely chopped
3 large bell peppers (any color, really), seeded and cut into big squares)
10 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or one 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained (I've found that canned stewed tomatoes work just as well too)
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, to your taste, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
5 zucchini or summer squash, ends trimmed, and cut into thick rounds
1 to 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh basil, to your taste
As much freshly ground black pepper as you damn well please
The Cookin':
First things first, you're supposed to throw your diced eggplant into a colander and coat it with salt, and leave it for an hour, which is supposed to drain the moisture out of the eggplant. I guess I didn't put enough salt on it (I only used about a tablespoon or two), but I didn't really find it all that essential in the end.
This salt/eggplant combo also fucking reeks, so unless you want your place smelling like burnt kitty litter for an hour, I'd just skip this entirely.
Now dump in your eggplant, onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic in the slow cooker. Pour in the olive oil and toss the veggies to get 'em coated.
Oh my. Cook it on high for 1 to 1.5 hours, or on low for 2 to 3 hours. You want to do it on low. Trust me.
Once that timer hits zero, you're gonna want to toss in your zucchini and squash.
CHRIST, that's a lot of veggies. I almost ran out of room in my pot at this point. Now you want to cook it on low for another two hours.
I bet right now you're wondering, "Did the smell of all these veggies cooking for so long make his apartment smell awesome?" Well let me answer that for you...
Duh.
Ok, during the last hour, you're going to want to toss the basil, salt, and pepper. I didn't put in a lot of basil and salt, but I loooove me some pepper, so I threw in lots and lots and lots.
During the last hour, I fried up a few chicken breasts on my stove and chopped up a baguette for some sides, but you can really have anything you want with ratatouille. Once the timer hits zero again, you're done!
Good gawd. Just look at how much liquid oozed out of all this food. It's practically drowning in veggie broth, but that's not a bad thing. Time to serve up this behemoth!
Yeah, I'm a predictable doofus. WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?
Oh right, the food. It was delicious! The veggies look like they're just sauteed and mushy in the pictures, but they held their shapes remarkably well, and I had two more helpings of just the ratatouille after this first plate. A tasty, healthy, and remarkably easy meal to make on these cool fall afternoons. Oh, and in case you're wondering what the white chunks are, I decided to sprinkle some feta cheese on top at the last minute, which made a good dish even better. Y'all can season it with whatever you want, though.
Rating: 9/10
Linguine wants her to DEAL WITH IT
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