Ratatouille

I had this uncontrollable craving (to eat and to cook!!) for Ratatouille after watching the movie Ratatouille of course. I pushed away the thought of making Ratatouille at home since I had only a microwave oven and I was sure it would not be the same if I did prepare in a microwave oven.

Once, my cousin and I decided to prepare Ratatouille for our Sunday lunch. We usually try new dishes every time we meet and this time it was Ratatouille. I checked google and it had a picture of Ratatouille which was not at all like the dish shown in the movie. It said that Ratatouille is a dish where some of the summer vegetables are simply sautéed together. We gathered almost all the veggies we needed (Replaced yellow squash with English cucumbers and basil/oregano instead of thyme) and tried it "the google way" and it came out amazing.

We prepared Ratatouille stove top way for a while and then decided to do it "the movie way" here in Norway. I will post the stove top way too when we prepare it next time. Anyway, when Naveen and I cooked this dish for the first time, we took a lot of care with every step. We also prepared tomato Purée from the scratch and you can click here for the link just in case you wanna prepare it from scratch too.

It was almost 3 in the noon on Sunday and we had had breakfast at 9. We took half an hour just to arrange the veggies and the music in the kitchen was hubby's rumbling tummy. hehehehee :D

It was one of the best beauties we have ever cooked. It came out so tasty and aromatic. Cooked it 5 times after the first time and planning to cook it again very soon.

Nutritional Information  (Approx)			(per serving)
Energy	78		Calories
Fat	8		%
Carbohydrate	2		%
Dietary Fiber	12		%
Sodium	1		%
Vitamin A	18		%
Vitamin C	50		%
Calcium	2		%
Iron	3		%
Protein	1.5		Grams
Sugar	3.7		Grams

Ingredients
Zucchini	1
Bell peppers	2
Yellow Squash/English cucumber	1
Onions	2
Egg plant	1
Garlic cloves	6 or more
Salt	to taste
Pepper powder	1 tsp
Tomato purée	1 cup
Coriander leaves chopped	1 tbsp
Dried/fresh oregano or basil or both	2 tsps
Olive oil	1/4 cup

Slice Eggplant, Zucchini, Bell peppers and cucumbers thinly.

Chop the onion and garlic finely.

In a baking dish, pour the tomato purée.

Add the finely chopped onion.

Spread the chopped garlic.

Sprinkle the coriander leaves.

Also, sprinkle the basil, oregano and pepper powder generously.

Finally sprinkle salt and give it a mix.

Drizzle olive oil

Arrange the vegetable slices alternatively half immersed in the tomato mixture around the dish.

Preheat the oven for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle salt, pepper on the veggies and drizzle olive oil generously.

Cover the dish with a parchment paper or foil and bake for atleast 40 minutes.

Remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes until the tomato purée starts bubbling around the vegetable slices.

Serve hot with pasta, rice or bread.