Provencal Ratatouille

I can hardly imagine Provencal summer without ratatouille. Not the movie, of course, although we could consider it as 'how to'. The dish is an ode to summer vegetables and in fact, cannot be cooked outside of the summer season. The word “ratatouille” comes from the Occitan ratatolha and is related to the French ratouiller and tatouiller, expressive forms of the verb touiller, meaning "to stir up". [source]. Originally, the word “ratatouille” means stew of cooked vegetables, especially eggplant, onions, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes, and garlic. There is none 'real' recipe for ratatouille and you can change the basic recipe to your liking.

Provencal Ratatouille

Ingredients:

Summer vegetables: 1 eggplant, 2 zucchini, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper (optional), tomatoes or tomato sauce (check ingredients, should contain just tomatoes and salt).

Olive oil

Provencal herbs: oregano, thyme, basil, tarragon, rosemary

Directions:

1. Wash vegetables and herbs.

2. Dice onion, chop garlic.

3. Preheat your pan, pour olive oil and fry onion for a couple of minutes. Add garlic.

4. Add diced eggplant, let cook for a couple of minutes, add zucchini and peppers. 5. Prepare your tomatoes: pour boiling water over the tomatoes and let stand for 5 minutes. Peel the skin and dice the pulp. Discard the seeds. Add to the stew.

6. Add all herbs except basil.

7. Let cook until the vegetables are slightly cooked, but don't overcook otherwise they'll become mushy.

8. Let stand for few minutes, add basil. Serve immediately with sourdough bread, as a side dish or with gluten free pasta.