In Italy, Le Pescerie (Fish Shops) are only open in the morning. We’ve been wanting to make fish, but haven’t been able to get up early enough.
Instead, tonight I made my very own version of Italian ratatouille (currently Bobby’s favorite Disney movie). This dish is filling enough to be the main course, and it’s loaded with nutrients. I used tomatoes, zucchini, and radicchio, but some people use eggplant instead of radicchio. I taught myself how to make ratatouille through trial and error. The key is to have equal parts of each vegetable.
Bobby and both had seconds and we finished it up (probably could have eaten more); as an appetizer you could probably feed three with this recipe.
Italian Ratatouille Recipe | How to Make Ratatouille
Ingredients (for 2 main dish servings or 3 appetizers)
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 zucchini
- 1 smallish radicchio
- Several garlic cloves, finely chopped OR a bit of finely chopped onion
- Salt & pepper
- Oregano
- Olive oil (optional)
- Grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions
- Roughly chop the vegetables. I halved the zucchini, then sliced it.
- Make layers in a large pot – the order doesn’t particularly matter, but I like to start with the tomatoes. After the first layer of tomatoes, sprinkle some salt, pepper, and oregano, as well as some of the garlic cloves OR onion. Make another layer of radicchio, add more salt, pepper, oregano, and onion. Repeat for the zucchini. Then continue with more tomatoes. I was able to have two layers of each veggie.
- Add about 2 cups of water.
- Heat on very low heat for about 1.5 hours.
- Serve in bowls – you may want to let it cool for 5 – 10 minutes; it gets quite hot.
- Sprinkle with olive oil OR grated cheese (optional).
Bobby liked this Italian ratatouille with olive oil and I liked it with parmesan cheese.