Easy weeknight ratatouille

So, still being on lockdown, and with the limitations currently in place, both around availability of online shopping and leaving the house, I decided on the weekend to order a veg box as an alternative (or at least a supplement to) regular supermarket shop deliveries. Included in the box was a big old aubergine, and whilst I did consider smoking it on the bbq, I decided to stick with the usual ratatouille (I had smoked aubergine at Smoke Stak in London once, and it was incredible - the best thing on their menu - and I have plans to try and re-create it one day).

Growing up I ate my fair share of courgettes and aubergines, almost always in the form of ratatouille. My dad would grow courgettes in his greenhouse, and they were prolific in their output. They'd be producing faster than we could eat them, so over the summer we would be inundated with them - and it became traditional that ratatouille would be a side dish with pretty much all BBQs we had (a tradition I am fast adopting myself). It would usually get to the point where my dad would have to freeze courgettes as they weren't being eaten fast enough, and whilst he will probably maintain he kept them in empty ice cream tubs in the freezer for practical reasons, it seems like a cruel trick to play on your kids (if you were to look in his freezer and discover an ice cream tub these days, my guess would be it would be full of frozen chillis, rather than courgettes - but either way, its unlikely going to be ice cream).

So, I called this recipe an easy weeknight version - and thats mostly because its relatively simple and only has a few ingredients, however, as with most my cooking it does want a little time in the oven to bring out its magic. Your active time will be quite short, but time to table a bit longer - if you can steal 30 minutes or so in the middle of the afternoon or even lunchtime so its got time to sit in the oven ahead of dinner, then you'll be grand.

Ingredients

• 1 aubergine, sliced into discs
• 1-2 courgettes, sliced (as chunky as you like them)
• 1 onion (I used red yesterday, but white is fine), finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• dried oregano - about a tablespoon
• olive oil (quite a few glugs - aubergines really drink this up)
• tomato puree
• 1 400 gram tin of chopped tomoatos

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan oven (adjusting if not a fan oven, usually you just add 20 degrees)

1. First of all, we will slice and salt the aubergine - we want to get that done up front as we to let the rest salted. Simply slice the aubergine into discs, lay them out on some kitchen towel and liberally salt them. Editors note:  there is debate around whether this is necessary - it used to be to draw out the bitterness, which has apparently been bred out of aubergines anyway. Another alternative to salting is to pre-cook them in the microwave, but I salt them partly out of nostalgia - my dad salts his aubergines - and partly because its the only seasoning I add to this recipe, and it works well.
   
   
2. Next lets start on the tomato sauce - add some olive oil to a saucepan over a medium heat and add the chopped onions - cook for 5-10 minutes until softened and slightly translucent
   
   
3. Add the chopped garlic and oregano, stir and cook for a further minute - try not to let the garlic brown
   
   
4. Add a tablespoon of tomato puree, stir through and cook for a further minute
   
   
5. Add the chopped tomatoes, stir through and pop it in the oven (you can just continue cooking on the hob if you prefer, but I prefer the quality you get when oven cooked)
   
   
6. In another frying pan (I use my cast iron skillet for this - which does a great job, as long as you get it nice and hot) add some more olive oil, and once its hot cook the courgettes. As long as the pan is hot enough, it should only take a few minutes for them to brown nicely. Once browned and soft, transfer them to a kitchen towel lined plate (this is to remove some of the oil from them).
   
   
7. Next throw in the aubergines - depending on how big the aubergine pieces are, this shouldn't take too long (and if you are using a decent frying pan, it should be really hot by now). You may have to add a couple glugs more olive oil, as aubergines will really absorb that - but thats ok, the additional olive oil helps add to the flavour and richness of the finished dish. Once browned, transition to another lined plate
   
   
8. At this point we will construct the finished dish - you can just slam it altogether if you like, but I go for a layered approach: in an oven dish, layer the aubergines, then courgettes, then top with the tomato sauce - making sure the tomato sauce covers the top of the veg
   
   
9. Reduce the oven temp 10 degrees (so to 150 in a fan oven) and pop the ratatouille in. It's ever so forgiving at this temperature, so cook for at least 40 mins, but if it needs to be in there beyond an hour it wont do it any harm (if you need it to sit in there longer, consider covering it if it starts to brown too much on the top)
   
   
10. Once done, serve with pasta, cous-cous, bread, whatever you like (I have also blitzed in with a hand blender to make veg packed pasta sauce - if you blitz it, kids will likely eat it with pasta and cheese, oblivious that they are eating quite so many vegetables)