For me,
Summer Vegetable Ragu or Ratatouille has always been associated with summer months, when fresh vegetables and fruits (eggplant, tomato) are in abundance. It is really the recipe of your choice, depends on your garden harvest, where you can put more or less of one vegetable or fruit over the other. And it is always taste good, as the different vegetables and fruits marry each other to produce a wonderful summer aroma.
You need:
= Eggplant - 1
= Sea salt to soak eggplant
= Light green Zucchini - 3 small
= Bell Pepper - 1 red and 1 green.
= Tomato - 1 medium
= Onion - 1 medium
= Garlic - 3-4 cloves
= Coriander (cilantro,kinza) - 1 bunch
= Carrots - 3 medium
= Chili Pepper - a tiny bit
= Oven dried Roma Tomatoes - 2 full Table spoons
= Salt "Herbamare"( or sea salt) to your taste
= Grape seed oil for frying
= Large Frying pan
*** First and foremost
Prepare Eggplant. Soak it in the sea salt.
Peel Eggplant and Chop on pieces.
Salt with the sea salt and leave it for at least 30 minutes. Drain the releasing water.
Only after this procedure eggplant can be cooked.
** About cooking time.
Vegetable Ragu cooks quite fast. While you peel and chop one vegetable, this time is enough to cook the previous one. At the end, the vegetables/fruits have to be cooked not too soft but firm to the bite.
~ Add grape seed oil to the frying pan. High heat. Add chopped Eggplant. Reduce the heat to Medium.
~ Meanwhile, peel and cut Onions. Add to the Eggplant. Mix.
~ Peel and chop Carrots. Add them to the Eggplant/Onion mixture. Mix.
~ Chop on pieces Zucchini. Add to the Eggplant/Onion/Carrots mixture. Mix.
~ Cover the frying pan and cook the mixture for 1 minute covered.
~ Meanwhile, slice Bell Peppers Add to the Eggplant/Onion/Carrot/ Zucchini mixture. Mix.
~ Add 2 Table spoons of oven dried Roma Tomatoes. Mix
~ Add a tiny bit of Chili Pepper. Mix.
~ Slice and dice Tomato. Add to the mixture.
~ Mix
~ Peel Garlic. Chop Garlic and Cilantro.
Add to the mixture. Salt to your taste.
Mix. Cook for 10 more seconds (Just count to 10).
Done. Enjoy with pasta, fish or meat, or just with a slice of bread.
Be Healthy:)
