Ratatouille Pasta

Ratatouille Pasta

Ratatouille is a traditional French dish from the Provence area, there are many variations on it.  This is about as easy as it gets, yet healthy, delicious, & filling.  Make a salad and you have your whole meal.  The most time consuming thing is chopping all the vegetables, no need to measure anything, add or subtract whatever your gang won't eat.  I'll bet if it is chopped up enough they won't even know it's in there.  What a great way to get your family to eat more vegetables!

Eggplant

Zucchini

onion

leek

carrots

green pepper

tomato

bay leaf

thyme

salt & pepper

garlic chopped

favorite red sauce

capers

pasta 

Parmesan fresh grated

Chop vegetables small and saute the first 7 ingredients till just softened, add everything down to the pasta and let simmer.  The longer it simmers the richer the sauce, the capers add a nice flavor to the sauce.  The carrots I usually chop small but the sweetness in them really helps with the acidic sauce, for years I used a little brown sugar for that but the carrots seem to do the trick and so much healthier.  When ready to serve just boil up your pasta, mix, sprinkle with Parmesan--enjoy.  

saute in a little olive oil the vegetables

sprinkle with Parmesan