Baked Ratatouille

You know how yesterday I was talking about all the dishes I wanted to cook but never seemed to actually get around to making?

Well, for once I followed my own advice and actually made something: Baked Ratatouille. 

When I first saw the recipe on smitten kitchen (a fantastic food blog, by the way) I was drawn to it for a number of reasons: it was bright and colorful, didn't seem incredibly time-consuming, had ingredients readily available in Lausanne, and appeared to be both delicious and healthy.

What really made me want to make it, however, was the recipe's inspiration: Rather than based on the traditional Provençal stew, this style of ratatouille imitates the dish served in the Pixar film Ratatouille. A yummy recipe based off a Pixar movie?! I'm totally, totally sold.

Remy, the adorable ratatouille-making rat in Pixar's fantastic film, Ratatouille.

Recipe
(based on this recipe; makes dinner for two, twice*)

Ingredients
medium zucchini
medium eggplant
long-ish red bell pepper
long-ish yellow bell peper
4 garlic cloves**
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
a pinch of roasted red pepper flakes
a few springs fresh thyme
salt & pepper, to taste

* My oval baking dish is kind of small, so I actually ended up with enough chopped veggies for another full pan. I simply made it again, stuck it in the fridge, and had it for dinner the next day.
** I'm a garlic fantatic. If you don't share my enthusiasm, I suggest halving this to two clove :)

Step 1:  Pour the tomato puree into the bottom of an oval baking dish. Add the garlic, stir in one tablespoon olive oil, and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.

layer number one. 

Step 2: Remove the ends from the vegetables. For the bell peppers, carefully cut out the stem, leaving the sides intact, like a tube. Carefully cut the veggies into super-thin slices. If you have a mandoline or adjustable-blade slicer, that would probably be best, but a sharp knife works well, too.

beautiful sliced veggies!

Step 3: Layer the sliced veggies on top of of the tomato sauce in a spiral or concentric circles, overlapping just a little. Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil on top, sprinkle with fresh thyme, and season with salt and pepper.

layer number two. 

the fresh thyme might be my favorite part- it added a really nice
flavor that went well with the goat cheese. 

Step 4:  Bake at a temperature for an amount of time. I'm not really joking...there's no way to set a temperature on our oven (problematic) and power goes off periodically, meaning the actual cook time is a bit hard to determine (also problematic). I just kept an eye on the veggies and waited until they were clearly cooked, but not yet crispy or brown. For those of you with more reasonable oven set-ups, the original recipe recommends 45 minuts at 375 F. 

perfectly cooked vegetables from a less-than-perfect oven. 

Step 5: Serve atop couscous or rice with a dab of chèvre. Enjoy!

one of the (many, many) perks to living in lausanne: fantastic,
fantastic cheese. this particular chevre is one of my favorites.