Easy Ratatouille - Inspired by Knorr

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I attended a Masterclass with Marco Pierre White earlier this year.  As part of my ongoing involvement with Knorr I was lucky enough to be sent a large box of seasonal produce to create recipes with.

There were loads of delicious fresh vegetables and I wanted to try as many as possible as soon as possible!  It was a slightly chilly Summer night so I was inspired to make this Easy Ratatouille because I was craving some nutritious, non-stodgy comfort food.  I also received some fabulous meat from The Well Hung Meat Company *snigger* but will do a separate post about that later. 

I served this Ratatouille with homemade crusty bread but you could make some dumplings to put in half way through the simmering stage if you wanted to have a more Winter warmer type dish.  I did debate whether to add a couple of tins of cannellini beans or mixed beans instead of having crusty bread on the side but decided to try that next time.

6 tbsp olive oil

3 diced peppers, I used red, orange and yellow

1 diced large red onion

4 crushed cloves of garlic

3 medium-sized diced eggplant

Finely chopped leaves from 1 small sprig of fresh rosemary

4 diced medium-sized courgettes

2 tins of chopped tomatoes or 1 kg skinned, cored and diced fresh tomatoes

1 bay leaf

2 cups Knorr vegetable or chicken stock

2 tbsp red wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large, heavy-based pan or casserole dish.  Sweat the peppers until soft, then add onion and garlic. Cook for a few more minutes until the onion is transparent.  Add the eggplant to the pan then sprinkle in the rosemary, cook for a further 5 minutes before adding the courgette and cooking for a further 5 minutes.

Finally add the prepared fresh or tinned tomatoes, bay leaf and stock.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1 hour or until all the vegetables are tender.  Add the red wine, season to taste and cook for a final 10 minutes.  If you want to add some rinsed tinned cannellini beans or mixed beans do so at this stage.  Make sure they cook in the ratatouille for the final 10 minutes.  When you are ready to serve, remove the bay leaf and ladle into bowls with crusty bread to soak up the juices.