Bavette con Ratatouille

(serves 4)

Ratatouille is a colourful vegetarian French stew originating from Nice, and i have to admit i first heard of this dish through the kids movie. I have been meaning to try this for ages now even though branching out to French cuisine is a bit out of my depth. 

From a bit of googling, i found there's some debate about the 'proper' way vs the 'lazy' way. You can either dice and cook the vegetables individually to preserve the texture and taste of each ingredient whilst making the tomato-based sauce separately. Then combine and simmer to soften and intertwine the flavours. Alternatively, just making the tomato-based sauce, then putting the vegetables in altogether would be faster but may be a compromise that should be made only when necessary. Baking seems to be another option to slowly cook the vegetables, but it seemed a bit too slow for me!

Prep time: 20 min

Cooking time: 50 min

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

2 squash

1 zucchini

1 red capsicum

1 brown onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic

400g can of whole peeled tomatoes

400g passata

1/2 C vegetable stock

2 tsp oregano

1 bay leaf

400g bavette (a skinnier vs of linguine)

2 sprigs basil, finely chopped

salt and pepper

olive oil

Method:

1. Cut the zucchini, capsicum and squash into bite-size pieces

2. Thinly slice the garlic, then place in a heated pot with 1 T oil. After the garlic is browned, add the onions and saute. Add the canned tomatoes, passata, vegetable stock, oregano and bay leaf. bring to the boil and simmer for 10 min. 

3. Meanwhile, on a frypan, sauté the zucchini with olive oil, salt and pepper.

4. Once the zucchini is cooked, remove from the pan and add the squash and capsicum. Sauté with olive oil, salt and pepper. 

5. Dice the eggplant into 1cm cubes and toss with some salt to prevent browning. Once the squash and capsicum are soft, remove from the heat and add the eggplant. Again, sauté with olive oil (this may need a bit more than the other ingredients), salt and pepper, turning frequently so the sides dry out a bit.

6. Once all the vegetables have been cooked, add it to the tomato-based sauce and simmer for 15 minutes, tossing regularly so the vegetables are well combined with the tomato mixture. Drizzle in some olive oil to help moisten the mixture, and add salt and pepper to taste.

7. When the sauce is almost ready, start to cook the pasta in salted boiling water in a separate pot. Cook pasta until al dente, drain and then toss with the sauce and basil and serve!

NB. You may also choose to add some bacon or prosciutto to serve if you don't feel like being vegetarian!