Saturday, September 3rd was a rough day for me food-wise. My parents and I had pancakes from Friday's leftover batter, then my mom and I had peach smoothies and my dad had yogurt with fruit. My dad and I spent a while packing our lunches, as we were driving to a dance competition in Canada and wouldn't know where to get local food. Unfortunately, I left my lunch on the kitchen table. My dad offered to share his lunch, but he was so hungry that I only ended up taking an apple.
It was dinnertime when we got home from the dance competition, and my dad and I were both starving. We both had a snack (for me, it was the bread I'd made the night before and some of the wonderful grapes from the farmers' market) A neighbor was hosting a pack llama event, and she had invited us to join her and the llama people for a pork roast. My dad really wanted to go over to the pork roast, but I don't like pork. We agreed that my parents would go over to the neighbor's for a little while and have some pork while I made ratatouille, then we'd sit down as a family and have ratatouille together.
The first step in making ratatouille is to saute onion and garlic in olive oil. From there, the cook adds all the other ingredients and lets them simmer and get soft. I couldn't get the bottle of olive oil open, though! I tried and tried and tried, then tried and tried and tried later, then tried and tried and tried even later. It finally came open when my parents had been gone for an hour and a half. I'd long since chopped all the vegetables, and so I quickly cooked them down into ratatouille.
By the time the ratatouille was ready, my parents were home. They'd had pork (from a pig raised by a local 4H kid for the county fair), green beans, and corn. My mom, who'd been the one who really wanted ratatouille, was too full to eat. I was furious! It was after 8 p.m., and I'd only eaten breakfast and a snack at that point. My head was hurting, probably from the lack of food. I'd gotten so stressed out that I wouldn't have dinner for my parents when the olive oil wouldn't open, and I'd worked frantically to get dinner ready once it did finally open. I could see why "Don't ruin your appetite" had been the mantra of mothers everywhere when confronted by hungry children in the hours leading up to dinner. Every cook wants to feel appreciated.
My dad ended up having a bit of room still for ratatouille, which made me feel better. The ratatouille (Wild Card Item olive oil, farmstand garlic, farmstand onion, garden eggplant, garden zucchini, garden tomatoes) turned out well. I served it over Flour City 100% Emmer pasta, which my dad and I both loved. It was flavorful, with a wonderful nutty aftertaste.
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Ratouille
slightly modified from Moosewood Cookbook
4 cloves garlic
1 medium (fist-sized) onion
1 Tbsp or so olive oil
1 small (or 1/2 large) eggplant
6 tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tsp basil
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp oregano
dash of ground rosemary
3 Tbsp water or dry red wine
2 tsp salt (optional)
black pepper to taste
2 small, 1 medium, or 1/2 zucchini or summer squash
2 medium bell peppers (optional)
freshly-chopped parsley (optional)
Peel garlic. Chop onion. Peel and chop eggplant. Chop two tomatoes and juice in blender. Heat olive oil in large pot. Crush in garlic and add onion; saute. Add eggplant, tomato juice, water or wine, and herbs. Stir and simmer for ten minutes or so. While eggplant is simmering, chop zucchini or summer squash and, if including, slice bell pepper into strips or cubes. After the eggplant has simmered for allotted time, add zucchini and (optionally) pepper. Simmer another ten minutes. During this time, chop the rest of the tomatoes. After the ten minutes is up, add tomatoes and, in including, salt and pepper to pot. Continue to simmer until all vegetables are tender, usually five to ten minutes. Serve with bread or over polenta, pasta, or rice. Top with parsley, if including.
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