Sunday, August 28, 2022

THE Recipe to Make This Weekend Plus: Pissaladière, Vegetarian Chili, Blueberry Muffins & More

If you've been reading for awhile now you know THE recipe I am referring to: ratatouille. There are many ways to make excellent ratatouille, but I think the least fussy way to do it, is to roast it.

The recipe I use comes from Gena Hamshaw's Food52 Vegan and calls for roasting with both olive oil and balsamic vinegar, which gives the finished ratatouille a subtle bite, a flavor that evokes eggplant caponata though the sharpness here is more mellow. It is irresistible.

This time of year, when the vegetables so quickly accumulate on the counter, I often make a triple or quadruple recipe. Most often this is how my roasting pan looks upon entering the oven:

For this many vegetables, you'll need to roast for about 3 hours, stirring once every hour. When nearly all of the liquid has reduced, and the vegetables become jammy in texture, the ratatouille is done.

Toss it with pasta. Spoon it over polenta. Eat it straight from the pan.

Most recently, I've loved spreading it over grilled flatbread and shaving parmesan over the top:

It also freezes beautifully, so don't be afraid to pack it away in quart containers and save it for a chilly fall day. (The caramelized cloves of garlic are my favorite.)

Roasted Ratatouille

6 More Recipes to Make This Week

Spicy Chickpeas with Tomatoes & Kale: I discovered this recipe from Jenny Rosenstrach's The Weekday Vegetarians about this time last year, and it became an instant staple for its ease in preparation and deliciousness.

Pissaladière: If you can make focaccia (yeast-leavened or sourdough), you can make pissaladière.

Baked Feta with Cherry Tomatoes: Love this with toasty bread or pasta or...

... tossed with roasted spaghetti squash:

With one week remaining before school begins, I'm thinking a lot about easy weeknight dinners, such as these old school tacos: Taco Night Simplified, Like Really Really Simplified

Two weeks ago, neighbors who were heading out of town gave us 5 quarts of their homegrown blueberries. We mostly ate them straight out of the containers — they were so sweet and so delicious — but I also made a few of my favorite blueberry recipes, namely these lemon-blueberry muffins. We took them camping with us last weekend, and they were such a treat to have with our morning coffee. We've been enjoying the last of the blueberries with our morning muesli.

For camping last weekend, I also made this vegetarian chili, which requires a decent amount of chopping, but which is a prep-as-you-go recipe that yields 5 quarts and freezes beautifully.