Ratatouille

For our February fancy dish that I have never made before meal, I made ratatouille, and much to my surprise it was very, very good, and very easy to make. Johnny and Adam would not try it, but the girls all loved it and even went back for seconds. I actually used and combined about three different recipes. I read that you can serve it over rice or egg noodles or eat it plain. I made the egg noodles because I did not want the baby rice mess and I knew that if my kids would not eat anything else, they would eat the egg noodles. I also sliced up and sauteed some italian sausages and served that on the side for the meat eaters of the family. Thus it became a meal suitable for many. Here is the basic recipe. I reccomend it to every one. Even my husband, John, who can't stand egg plant admitted that the combination of herbs and vegetables had a really good flavor.

Ratatouille
2 cloves garlic
1 med onion
1 med eggplant
2 small zucchini
1 med green pepper
2 med tomatoes
fresh basil 3 or 4 leaves
1/4 c. olive oil
1 1/2 t. salt
pepper
thyme

I sauteed the onions and garlic first, then added all the other vegetables except the tomatoes, sauteed that, and then let it simmer covered on med/low for about ten minutes. Then I added diced fresh tomatoes (a lot of recipes call for tomatoe paste or stewed toamtoes.) I let it simmer about 5 more minutes and it was well cooked and well bended. Other recipes did not have any peppers and used mushrooms. Obviously there is some variety out there. But I will definitely make this again and probably often, even if it is just a side dish. I think our entire meal took about a half hour to prepapre.