Ratatouille (aka End Of The summer Veggie Stew)

Ratatouille is an end of the summer veggie stew that is typically slow cooked until it's nice and soft and jammy, but I prefer my ratatouille cooked quickly so that it's nice and fresh and even a little al dente. I'm Dani Spees and for this Quick Byte I'll show you how to make my quick cooked ratatouille. So I've got a nice big Dutch oven heating up over a medium heat and to that I'm going to add one teaspoon of olive oil along with about five cups of chopped up eggplant, which is about one medium eggplant. Give that a pinch of salt and then we're just going to let this go for about eight to ten minutes or until the eggplant begins to lightly brown and get nice and tender. Now you'll notice that I just used a very little bit of olive oil and that's because eggplant is like a sponge and it will absorb as much oil as you give it and you really don't need it. What you're going to see is that that salt starts to draw the water out of the eggplant and that provides plenty of liquid for the eggplant to continue cooking it. Now if the eggplant is starting to look a little bit dry, it's not a big deal. Just go ahead and toss in a little bit of water to bring back some moisture. After about ten minutes your eggplant is going to be nice and soft and tender. Then you just want to remove it from the pan and set it aside. Then we're going to add another two teaspoons of olive oil or so to the pan along with one onion that I've cut into half moons and four to five cloves of garlic all minced up and a big fat pinch of red pepper flakes. Now this is just going to go another two minutes or so or until those onions and garlic are nice and fragrant. Once you can smell the onions and the garlic then you're ready for your peppers. Now I've got two bell peppers, a red and a green. You can use any color that you had on hand. I'm going to pop that into the pan along with a little bit of kosher salt. Now this is all going to go another five, six minutes. What you're looking for is for those onions to turn translucent. You don't want them to brown so if they start to brown just turn the heat down a little bit. Okay so once the onions are there then you're ready to add in the rest of the veggies. I've got five cups of zucchini here but you could use any summer squash that you had on hand as long as it's in season it's going to be delicious. Four fresh chopped tomatoes and about a third of a cup of veggie or chicken broth. Then I'm just going to season it up with a little salt, some black pepper and give it a stir. Now this is going to go another 15 minutes or so or until all the veggies start to break down and come together. Remember what grows together goes together and this dish is the perfect example. We've got a whole bunch of end of the summer veggies tossed into a pot along with a little bit of garlic and olive oil and it is going to be delicious. You don't need to be a fancy chef to make great food. Mother Nature will do all the dirty work for you. All you need to do is find someone to do the dishes. Our veggies are looking nice and tender so I'm going to add my eggplant back into the dish and let it finish off for another 5-10 minutes or until it's all come together. Now just for the record here guys if you do prefer a softer jamier ratatouille it's just a time thing so all you would need to do is let it cook even longer stirring it every so often until you've got it exactly where you like it. Okay this ratatouille is exactly where I like it so I'm going to shut off the heat and finish it up with some fresh herbs. I've got one handful of fresh basil and one handful of fresh tarragon. Now if you're not familiar with tarragon this is what it looks like. It comes on a little stem like this. It's got these long pointed leaves and it has a very sweet anise flavor to it. It's like that mild black licorice and it's absolutely delicious paired with the basil especially in this dish. Definitely one of my favorite combos. Now you could serve your ratatouille over some grilled chicken or use it as a bed for a nice piece of fish or just do what I do and top it with some fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and eat it straight from the bowl. All about the fresh herbs. Delish. Now it's your turn. Have you ever tried making ratatouille before? Any tips, ideas, tricks, failures, successes, even questions? I want to hear about it all down in the comments below. And if you like this video then please like it or better yet subscribe and be sure you share it with all your friends so we can make lots more videos for you. For more simple and nutritious recipes, tips and ideas be sure you check out CleanAndDelicious.com where you can print out all the recipes, save your favorite recipes to your personal recipe box and subscribe to my newsletter. And you know what? I share lots of things in my newsletter that I only share with my subscribers so you want to be sure to put your name on the list. Thanks so much for watching guys. I'm Dani and I'll see you next time with another quick bite. The salt is going to start to draw the liquid out of that eggplant and that liquid is plenty of...