Ratatouille
Serves: 8
Ratatouille, (ra-taa-too-EE) which is a French vegetable stew and not a rat from a Disney movie, is made with the bounty of the garden. This is a simple, classic Provencal dish that showcases our summer garden abundance. Traditionally, it didn't include meat, but of course, our family added italian sausage and made it a meal. Serve with good crusty bread and a fruit dessert. Traditionally, it was served as a side dish to accompany a roast or poultry.
Our family added Italian sausage and made it into a meal. This is a great meal to taste an Ohio summer and inexpensive to make. Even with chopping the ingredients it takes very little time to put together. If you sauté the sausage first and layer the rest of the ingredients into a slow cooker, eight hours later (on low) you can have dinner ready when you arrive home.
Serve the Ratatouille with crusty warm bread. For dessert, warm up some local peach halves on the grill, and serve with ice cream. Summer won’t last forever, enjoy it while you can.
Ingredients
- 1 pound mild italian sausages
- 3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 large yellow onions chopped in large dice
- 3 zucchini thickly sliced
- 3 yellow summer squash thickly sliced
- 1-2 green bell peppers roughly chopped
- 1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons italian seasoning
- 1-2 teaspoons salt to taste
- 1-2 teaspoons black pepper to taste
Directions
- In a large stock pot or dutch oven, brown the sausage and slice or crumble as needed to portion the sausage into bite sized pieces.
- Add the diced onion and garlic and saute until the onion is transparent and just begining to color.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, stir to combine, and bring to the boil.
- Lower the heat to simmer and taste. The Ratatouille should still taste raw, but with enough salt and flavor. Add a little more seasoning if you had bigger vegetables or just like it with a little more kick.
- Simmer about 30 minutes or until the zucchini is just fully tender, this is not a crisp vegetable stew.
Serving Tips
You may substitute hot italian sausage if you prefer.