Ratatouille

This recipe comes from one of our legendary former staff members Claire. In Claire's words:

Ratatouille is one of my favourite things to make. It’s wonderful in late summer and early fall, when you can get great vegetables that haven’t travelled thousands of kilometres in the back of a truck, and it’s the perfect thing for a cold, winter evening (just use canned tomatoes). It’s vegan, gluten-free, flavourful, healthy, low-effort, infinitely scalable, and it freezes reasonably well. It works as a side dish, or as a main course, served over rice, quinoa, couscous, or just with a slice of really great bread. Add some cooked lentils if you want to up the protein content. I’ve adapted my recipe over the years, stealing bits and pieces of other people’s ideas. Here’s the most recent incarnation.

Ingredients:

1 red onion
2-3 bell peppers (at least one red)
1 medium-to-large eggplant
2 medium zucchini
2-3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 large can good-quality tomatoes OR
5-6 nice plum tomatoes
Olive oil
Herbes de Provence
Fleur de Sel
Mignonette Peppercorns 

Instructions:

1. Chop all vegetables into a rough, 1-inch dice.
2. Toss onion, peppers, eggplant and zucchini with a good drizzle of olive oil, some Fleur de Sel and a good grinding of pepper. Spread the vegetables on a sheet pan, or in a shallow dish, and roast at 400°F for 20 minutes to half an hour, or until they have softened and the edges are browned. When the vegetables are ready, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large soup pot. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until garlic is just golden.
3. Add roasted vegetables, tomatoes (with liquid, if canned), and a few teaspoons of Herbes de Provence. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook about 20 minutes. Uncover and stir in more herbs, salt, and pepper to taste.