Rapid ratatouille

With a bounty of harvest vegetables, it's easy to pull together a thrifty ratatouille meal.

This was my favorite thing I ate this week. Yancey was at Pike Place with Loretta, and I called to ask if he'd pick up some fish for dinner. Being the sensible, thrifty (and cute, though that has nothing to do with this) person that he is, he said, "We have so much food at home right now." Meaning, "Can't you do something with that fridge of ours that's stuffed with unintelligible remnants?"

Why, yes, actually. I can.

By the way, while I'm not the subject, I have to break one of blog rules right now, which is "Don't Bore Your Readers with Cloying Stories about How Sweet Your Husband Is." He has been amazing lately – cooking dinner, asking for Honey-Do lists, being Super Dad, and cheering me on with all his might as I work on building my consulting practice. Lately, more than ever, I really feel we are partners, in synch with one another and working hard.

Okay. Back to regularly scheduled programming. If your life has been anything like mine lately, you might appreciate this healthy, (relatively) quick, and thrifty meal. I have often roasted ratatouille in a deeper pan, which causes the veggies to steam. Still delicious, but this is my new thing. I'd love it if it became your new thing.

Rapid Rataouille

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Cut 4 medium zucchini, 1 large yellow onion, 2 yellow bell peppers, and 6 roma tomatoes into uniform large-ish pieces and put onto a baking sheet. Add one pound of baby red potatoes, halved. Take a whole head of garlic and separate it into peeled cloves. Scatter the cloves over vegetables.

3. Pour 1/4 cup best-quality olive oil over the whole thing and add very generous pinches of kosher salt and grindings of pepper. Gently stir.

4. Roast for about 45 minutes, stirring once, until veggies have crisped up around the edges and everything is all olive-oily-oozy. Chop up some fresh rosemary or parsley, finely grate a little Parmesan, zest a lemon, and mix these up together. Sprinkle over your hot ratatouille.

Related post on In Praise of Leftover: Ratatouille Pizza