Roasted Ratatouille

Summer vegetables abound! Here's a recently-discovered way to combine all of them. Instead of sauteing the veggies in a pot (the traditional way to make ratatouille), I roasted them in the oven while I watched TV and marveled at the comforts of home air conditioning. I have a feeling that grilling the vegetables would be a great way to make this dish even more summery. Ratatouille is great as an accompaniment to chicken or fish, tossed with pasta or rice, or eaten on its own (as I've done in France, straight out of a can) with some bread to soak up the juices.


2 medium Chinese or Japanese eggplants
2-3 medium summer squash
2 bell peppers
1 onion
4 large tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
15-20 basil leaves, chopped or cut into thin ribbons
big handful of chopped parsley
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut the eggplants, squash, peppers, onion, and tomatoes into thick chunks. Toss vegetables with just enough olive oil to coat, and a little bit of salt and pepper (I like to keep the vegetables separate, so that I can cook them on the same baking sheet but remove any that cook more quickly than the others). Spread vegetables out on two large baking sheets, and roast in the oven until tender (about 35-45 minutes). The tomatoes and onions may brown/cook the quickest, so you may want to remove them a little early.

Put the tomatoes in a large bowl and gently break them up using a wooden spoon. Add garlic (I like to let the hot roasted tomatoes cook the garlic just a little bit). Fold in to make a thick sauce. Combine with remaining vegetables, herbs, and additional salt and pepper to taste.