Ratatouille/French Vegetable Ragout

Ratatouille, this French provençal vegetable stew is a traditional dish which have its origin from Nice,though this stew aka Ragout is referred as Ratatouille niçoise, this dish quite popular among the entire Mediterranean coast as this dish is an easy summer dish. Since this dish is typically prepared as a stew especially with summer vegetables, this dish have their important place in summer lunch tables. Traditionally each vegetable is sauteed separately before which is layered as a baking dish and baked in oven. But now many versions exists, this dish is served as a side dish while serving a meal which is accompanied by either pasta, bread or else with rice. Tomatoes is the main ingredient for making this flavourful and aromatic dish,though vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, bellpeppers, onions, garlic plays an important role for making this fantastic dish. As i told earlier, many easy version of making this Ratatouille do exists and i followed one of the easiest method.

Yes my method is simply to saute all the vegetable together and cooked with herbs. Similar dishes exists in other cuisines, Pisto from Spanish cuisine, Caponata from Italian cuisine, Lecso from Hungarian cuisine etc. This dish makes an excellent main dish stew to enjoy thoroughly with rice with grilled meats or french fries. However our favourite way to enjoy this vegetable loaded ragout is having with long grain rice and grilled chicken, this combination works awesome and trust me you will definitely have a super filling lunch or dinner. Am running this month's blogging marathon with French cuisine under Journey through the cuisine in Alphabetic order and today's alphabet is 'R' hence this fantastic vegetable ragout from French Cuisine.

2nos Zucchini (chopped)
1no Onion (big & thinly sliced)
1no Aubergine(cubed)
2no Green bell peppers(coarsely chopped)
4nos Large tomatoes (coarsely chopped)
2 Garlic cloves (chopped)
1tsp Dried basil
1/2tsp Dried oregano
1/4tsp Dried thyme
1tbsp Fresh parsley(chopped)
Olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a pan,add garlic and onions, saute until the onions turns transculent.

Add the cubed aubergine, cook for a while. Now add the chopped zucchini, chopped bell peppers and stir.

Cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes and the herbs, cook again in simmer until the tomatoes turns soft.

Add a cup of water and cover the pan and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes or until the aubergine gets cooked.

Serve hot with rice.

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