It has been a long hiatus!! Sorry about that folks. The format from now on will be a little different: a very brief recipe will begin my post, with any details at the bottom. Let me know if you have any comments/suggestions!
Here's our latest "favorite" from the ever awesome folks at Cooks Illustrated. We deconstructed this and paired it with our Paleo Meatballs to have an excellent meal of meatballs on a bed of roasted veggies, covered in a tomato sauce. Yum yum!
Ratatouille
Ingredients
2 large eggplants (about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds) cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds) cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 medium ripe tomatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Directions
Prepare the eggplant (see details below).
Adjust two oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions, heat oven to 475 degreees F, and line 2 rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil.
Toss eggplant, zucchini, and 2 tablespoons of oil together in a large bowl. Spread mixture evenly in a single layer between the two baking sheets. Sprinkle with salt and roast, turning the veggies and rotating the sheets every 10 minutes, for 30-40 minutes.
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, season to taste with salt and pepper, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until soft and golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes.
In the original recipe, everything is then cooked together, but we kept them separate. At this point, we added the chopped fresh herbs for about 1 to 2 minutes and then served with the tomato portion ladled over the roasted veggie portion. Season with salt and pepper or additional fresh herbs to taste.
Notes and Details
To prepare eggplant for cooking, it is important to remove the bitter juices (especially with the larger, globe eggplants). Believe me, I've tried going without this step and the dish can almost come out inedible, depending on the eggplant. It's simple, you just have to plan on doing this step ahead of time. I did this first and then worked on the meatballs while the salt was working its' magic:
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Place cubed eggplant in a large colander set over a large bowl. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of table salt and toss until the eggplant is evenly covered. Let the salted eggplant stand in the colander for at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Rinse the eggplant well under running water to remove the salt and remaining bitter juices. Spread the eggplant evenly in a single layer over a triple thickness of paper towels, cover with another triple thickness of paper towels, and press firmly on the eggplant with the palm of your hands until the eggplant feels dry and compressed.
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Summer squash can be substituted for one or both of the zucchinis. I did a 2:1 summer squash to zucchini substitution for this recipe.
If you don't have a Dutch oven, any heavy-bottomed sauce pot will do. And you can substitute your choice of cooking fat for the oil in this step.
That's it! Buon appetito!!
