I remember hating ratatouille as a child.  I only rediscovered it a couple of years ago when I had an abundance of zucchini and eggplants and did not yet have many recipes for them.  Luckily, I realized that the secret to delicious ratatouille is to cook it super long so that everything blends and it almost becomes a sauce.  So, unlike me, my daughters really like ratatouille, even Cammy likes the liquid from the ratatouille mixed with his rice.

This year, I realized that the concept of ratatouille was perfect for the slow cooker.  So I have found another good summer use of the slow cooker, and avoided hours of having gas burner on the stove on.

There are many ways to use ratatouille:  with rice or bread it can be a meal on its own, it can be a side with chicken, or, as I used it tonight, as a sauce with a simple poached tilapia and basmati rice. It was a tasty, and very healthy, combination.

Ratatouille

3/4 pounds eggplant, chopped fairly small (from the garden)

Kosher salt

1 medium zucchini, chopped (from the garden)

2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 pound of tomatoes, the riper the better, chopped (from the garden)

1/4 cup olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

Pinch of kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

First, place the eggplant in a colander, sprinkle with kosher salt and let stand in the sink for 1/2 hour to sweat the eggplant.

Rinse the eggplant to remove the salt.

Place all the remaining ingredients in a crock pot.  Add salt and pepper and stir well.

Cook for a very long time.  I cooked it on low for 3 hours, followed by high for 2 hours, and then high for another hour with the lid removed to thicken the mixture a bit.  You can just cook it on low for 6-8 hours, but I was enjoying playing around with it. Nice thing about ratatouille, it is forgiving and hard to overcook.

Serves 4 – 6.  Enjoy!