Ratatouille

Well it seems like the Olympic Food Challenge burned me out, blogging wise. I've had little inspiration (or money, blooming 5 week month) to make and blog stuff. So in order to get back into the swing of things I thought I would share this recipe for Ratatouille that I'm currently teaching to Year 8 in order for them to get more skillful prepping veg and give some exposure to a variety of different vegetables.

There are many versions of this classic french veggie stew, a quick shufty on Wikipedia states methods from Julia Child: Saute each veg individually and make a sauce out of the tomatoes peppers and herbs and then bake as a casserole, to Joël Robuchon: a similar method but involves simmering over a hob for a bit at the end.

Personally, all I do is saute each veg adding one after the other until all are combined with a tin of tomatoes and a mountain of  basil. Simple, healthy and tasty.

Ingredients
1 onion, finely diced
1 clove of garlic, finely diced
1 red pepper, sliced in small strips
1 courgette, diced into small pieces
1 aubergine, diced into Small pieces
1 tin of tomatoes
1 stock cube/pot
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
100ml of water
lots of fresh basil
Salt and pepper

Method
Fry the onion and garlic gently until turning golden brown.
Add the red pepper and fry until soft.
Add the courgette and fry until golden and soft
Add the aubergine and fry until golden and soft
Pour in the tomatoes, vinegar, water and season to taste
Leave to simmer for about 15 minutes or longer, depending on how mushy you like your veg.
Roughly chop the basil and sprinkle over.

Serve with plenty of crusty bread