Succulent oven-roasted vegetables.
I stole this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini. Clotilde is one smart biscuit, and knows that roasting vegetables brings out their sweetness. Why I never tried roasting the veggies for ratatouillie I don't know, but now that I have I've tossed my old recipes for ratatouillie in the rubbish bin.
I served it over couscous cooked in vegetable stock, with a chickpea salad and some red wine, because red wine is what you serve with roast, isn't it?
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 eggplant
1 zucchini
2 green peppers
8 small tomatoes
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
olive oil
salt, pepper
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Peel and slice the onion and garlic. Rinse the remaining vegetables, trim and slice them. Rinse the herbs. Combine everything in an oven-proof dish. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil (about two tablespoons). Toss a little more to ensure even coating.
Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. At this point the vegetables should be cooked but not colored, and there should be cooking juices at the bottom of the pan.
Remove the foil and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, keeping an eye on the progress, until the cooking juices have evaporated and the vegetables have taken on a nice roasted aspect.
Remove the sprigs of herb, and serve immediately, or at room temperature, or cold. It gets even better the next day and the day after that.
[It never got cold at my house; it was gone long before that, so I can't vouch for Clotilde's experience there.]
