How to cook a rat...

Was mine the only household that habitually referred to ratatouille as rat?

To make it even better in our house it was cooked a lot in the 12 years I was vegetarian (age 6-18) and often served as 'rat and beans' - a charming combination I think you'll agree!

Anyway its something I make a lot, I've taken my mum's method of separately cooking thin slices of aubergine. It does take a bit longer but makes it tastes amazing. In restaurants ratatouille is often neatly diced vegetables, lightly cooked - this is delicious but mine is much more like a hearty vegetable stew (which I like to kid myself is much more like the original French Provençal dish).

Again I'm sharing this recipe as I made the biggest batch ever for my current experiment. I'm on day three so I'll be back to normal meals from tomorrow but I've still got lots of lovely rat to get through.

Chunky Vegetable Ratatouille

The recipe given here is to give enough to serve a big group or a houseful with lots of leftovers, obviously it can easily be scaled up or down to suit the occasion.

2 red onions, peeled and cut into eighths
8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped or crushed
2 aubergines, sliced
3 courgettes, cut into chunky slices
3 red peppers, cut into chunks
2 x 400g tin a tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree or Bomba
Dried basil and oregano
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil, chopped
Olive or flavourless coconut oil

Preheat your oven or grill to high - I go for oven because our grill is rubbish and it lets me do multiple layers at once.
Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan, fry the onion and garlic.
As the onions start softening add the red peppers - this should all be done on a fairly low heat, you want them to cook and soften not brown.
Meanwhile spread your aubergines on baking trays (or greaseproof paper slid onto the shelves if like me you only have one baking tray) with a sprinkle of salt.
Put in a hot oven or under a grill until they take on some colour. Once they are cool enough to handle quarter or halve them and add to the pan.
Now do the same with your courgettes.
Add your two tins of tomatoes, swilling out the contents with a bit of water then adding the tomato puree and dried herbs.
Let it all cook down for half an hour or so, season to taste and add more herbs if you think they're needed.
Once the vegetables have softened stir in the fresh basil and you're ready to serve.