LOCAL HARVEST RATATOUILLE

LOCAL HARVEST RATATOUILLE image

Yield 6 servings

Number Of Ingredients 10

1/2 cup olive oil
1 head garlic, minced (harvested in early summer)
3 medium red onions, chopped (harvested in early summer)
2 shallots, minced (recently pulled)
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 small green bell pepper, 1 small golden bell pepper, and 1 large red bell pepper (just picked)
3 cups of homemade roasted tomato sauce (see roasted tomato sauce recipe)
2 zucchinis (homegrown by mom), diced (about 8 cups)
4 slender Japanese eggplants, (from the farmers' market) (about 6 cups)
Thyme and basil from the herb garden

Steps:

Place olive oil in a large sauce pan. Heat oil on medium high heat, add garlic, onions, and shallots. Stir and reduce heat to low. Do not let them brown. Season with salt and pepper cook for about 45 minutes or until the are soft and brown and all the flavors have melded together. Roughly chop peppers (any combination of bell peppers will work). Place peppers in a blender and puree. You should have about 1 cup of pureed peppers; if you need more, add a few jarred roasted red peppers and puree them as well. Add peppers puree to onions. Stir often (about 45 more minutes) and let cook down. Add the homemade tomato sauce and more salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and then simmer while you do the next steps. Stir often. (OK, at this point, it smells wonderful and would make a great pasta sauce!) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (Keep stirring the tomato/pepper mixture). Toss the chopped veggies in olive oil and salt and pepper. Place in a large baking dish and roast for about 45 minutes. Stir about three times during cooking. Remove veggies from oven and set aside. Stir herbs into tomato/pepper base. Carefully stir in veggies. Enjoy!