Farmer's Market Ratatouille

As I only have two more weeks(!) left in Livermore, I'm trying to use up all of the food that I have and be smart about what I buy. Not do the thing where I'm like, oh this looks interesting...I'll use this for something...and then I never do. You know how it is.

I exercised my super-California-ish-ness by biking to the farmer's market. I really like the one in Livermore, especially the Thursday one, which has live music and a bunch of food trucks where you can grab some dinner before you shop. For this recipe, I was able to get everything I needed vegetable-wise at the farmer's market, even the garlic and the parsley. I had some Parmesan cheese left from my kale adventures as well as some pasta sauce from a sauce I had made with leftover chicken sausage and basil from my plant at home that I harvested last weekend.

I searched the web for a ratatouille recipe, and what resulted is sort of an amalgamation of all the recipes I found. This is a good base recipe, but it definitely needs...something. I think maybe some extra seasonings like rosemary or thyme would be great to throw in with the eggplant and onion mixture.

Deliciousness in progress. So colorful!

I served the ratatouille with brown rice, but it would be great with cous cous or another starchy grain to soak up all of the vegetable juices.

Be warned that there is a LOT of prep work involved, but once you get everything chopped, all you need to do is layer it in a dish and poof! After 50 minutes, you have dinner! If you desired, you could probably buy pre-cut veggies or even get cut up stuff off the salad bar at your local supermarket.

Also, the ratatouille gets better with age, so look forward to leftovers!

Farmer's Market Ratatouille

Cooking spray
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 Japanese eggplants
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 medium zucchini
2 medium yellow squash
1 bell pepper
1/2 cup baby carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 medium tomatoes
1/3 jar tomato sauce
Fresh basil
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan cheese (about 1 cup-ish)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a 9x9" glass baking dish (or any similarly sized casserole dish) with cooking spray.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray. Saute garlic and onions until garlic starts to brown and onions are slightly translucent. Add the eggplant and continue sauteing until the eggplant is soft, about 10 minutes. In the last minute of cooking the eggplant, add the parsley and cook until incorporated but still green. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Spread the eggplant mixture on the bottom of the dish. Cover with a few tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Layer zucchini on top, sprinkle with salt and more cheese. Continue layering the squash, carrots, bell peppers, and tomatoes, salting and adding cheese in between each layer. Top the tomato layer with torn basil, pasta sauce, and a final sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 50 minutes or until cheese is browned and vegetables are soft.

The finished product!