Food:

Baked Ratatouille serves 8-10

2-3 zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (gifted)

4-6 baby red potatoes, cut in quarters (Farmers Market)

6-8 baby japanese eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (gifted)

a head of garlic, chopped, if cloves are big use about 4-6 (gifted)

4-6 shallots, chopped (gifted)

a couple of chilies, your choice, chopped (I used three Thai chilies from the Farmers Market, chilies are optional)

a medium size container of your favorite cherry tomatoes, cut in half (Kenyon Organics)

2 T. olive oil

2 T. ghee, you can use regular butter or coconut oil

salt and pepper

a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme (my garden)

a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary (my garden)

parsley, chopped (my garden)

Parmesan cheese, optional (Caputo’s Market)

Directions:

1. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place all the chopped veggies in a your favorite baking dish. I used my big yellow one that is really deep, when I made my Gluten-free Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler it held 15 cups of fruit! So used a big baking dish.

3. Toss the veggies and season with salt and pepper. Next drizzle the olive oil over the veggies and toss again. Lastly, dollop the ghee on top of the veggies and place the thyme and rosemary on top as well.

4. Cover with foil and bake for 45 min. After that 45 minutes remove the foil toss the veggies around and bake for another 45 minutes. I know it is done when the juice from the veggies is almost covering the veggie mixture.

5. Remove from oven and let it cool just a bit and top with chopped fresh parsley and fresh grated Parmesan cheese. EAT!

This is how we enjoyed our Baked Ratatouille…

The day I made the Baked Ratatouille we had it for dinner with Wild King Salmon, super delish.

The next morning we had the baked Ratatouille for breakfast with poached Clifford Farm eggs and Crumb Brothers sourdough bread slathered with Amour Spreads heirloom tomato jam. Holy crap this was good!

Love:

This time of year is usually a little bitter-sweet for me, I’m completely exhausted from all of our summer fun but this is when we have the most abundance of fresh food available. Part of me wants to start easing into the laziness of fall but the beautiful summer produce reminds me to enjoy every last morsel it has to offer. So was the case last weekend, we had just got back from our annual camping trip with our friends and I was feeling under the weather but I had just been gifted a huge box of veggies from my friend Dean’s garden. Instead of spending all day in the kitchen I decided to through this dish together and let the oven do the work for me. Voila, the best of both worlds, a little laziness with a side of summer. The bonus is we got to enjoy this dish for a few other meals which comes in handy when you need a little break. Long live summer. ENJOY!