Charmaine Solomon's Ratatouille

Ingredients

  • 750g eggplant
  • cooking salt
  • 3 small zucchini
  • 2 red or green capsicums
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 large onions
  • 4 large ripe tomatoes (1 tin of tomatoes)
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to serve

Method

  1. Wash eggplant but do not peel. Cut into cubes, sprinkle with salt and set aside in colander for an hour. Slice unpeeled zucchini and treat the same way as eggplant. Press out and discard liquid drawn out by salt. Discard seeds and membrane from capsicums and cut into strips. Finely chop the garlic and onions. Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes.
  2. Heat olive oil in heavy based saucepan and cook onions and garlic until soft but not brown. Add eggplant, capsicums and zucchini, cover and cook on low heat for 30 minutes, then add tomatoes, coriander, basil, salt and pepper and cook for further 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are very tender. (Adjust timing and heat for quicker results, just as good.)
  3. Serve warm or cold, with crusty bread French bread or pita, preferably wholemeal. Diehard option for more protein is to put cooked ratatouille in overproof dish, make hollows with back of spoon and crack an egg per person into hollows and then bake at 180C until eggs cooked as desired. (We have never done this).