I'm not ashamed to admit that the animated movie Ratatouille was what inspired me to make this dish for the first time. I'm so glad I did, I love finding recipes for vegetables that I don't usually eat weekly. In this case aubergine and somewhat the courgette and butternut squash.
I always try to eat a variety of vegetables every week, so this will "dilute" the broccoli and asparagus which have been very plentiful of late.
This dish is great to serve the following day, the flavours will mingle overnight in the fridge. Delicious!
I now use a mandoline slicer to cut the veg. I bought mine in TK Maxx but I found a similar slicer here on Amazon. It so quick and easy to slice your vegetable nice and thin with one of these.
Ingredients:
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 small red pepper, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 500ml passata
- tsp fresh oregano, chopped
- tsp fresh thyme, chopped
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 small aubergine, sliced thinly
- 5-6 tomatoes, sliced thinly
- 1 small butternut squash, sliced thinly
- 1 courgette, sliced thinly
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- salt and pepper
How To:
- Add coconut or olive oil to a pan and sauté the onion and pepper, when beginning to soften add the minced garlic and cook for one minute. Add the herbs, passata and cook for 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool then puree in a blender.
- Preheat oven to 190°C.
- On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the aubergine, courgette, butternut squash and tomatoes into very thin slices, approximately 2mm thick.
- Pour the puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 25cm across the long way. On top, arrange the slices of prepared vegetables from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish in a swirl fashion, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables.
- Combine the remaining olive oil and garlic and then drizzle on top of vegetables, season with salt and pepper.
- Cover with tin foil and bake for 1 hour, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
- Serve and enjoy!
Tips:
- Use a sharp knife. I used my usual, then switched to one I rarely use and the difference was staggering! The blade glided through the vegetables and I no longer worried about the knife slipping because I was pressing so hard. A sharp knife truly is safer than a blunt knife. Now to learn to use my sharpening steel!
- When buying your veggies try to buy those which are a similar diameter. I chose a small squash, a thin aubergine, a fat courgette and tomatoes which were a similar size to the lot.
- Why not make two portions if you have another baking dish spare, this is delicious reheated!
I hope you'll enjoy this recipe. Let me know how this turns out for you! Tag me in your pictures on Instagram, @PilatesBarreDlk I'd love to see them!
Emma x
