I roast my ratatouille rather than prepare it in the traditional French way because I prefer that roasted taste, and the larger cut vegetables… I also use red, orange or yellow peppers because, frankly, I’m biased against the green variety!

You’ll need:

8 Roma tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
1 large eggplant
2 large peppers – red, orange and/or yellow
2 zucchini
1 large onion
3 large cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
½ cup spicy bloody mary mix
Fresh basil
Parmesan cheese, grated
Pasta (boiled in salted water), optional

What you do:

Before you start, place the quartered tomatoes on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast for two hours at 325, then set aside.

Chop all the ingredients into large chunks (but slice the garlic small).  Place in a roasting pan and drizzle with as much as half a cup of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mix it all together so that everything is coated in the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Coarsely chop the tomatoes and combine with the roasted vegetables, spicy bloody mary mix and basil.  Serve topped with the parmesean cheese.

For a more substantial dish, if you’re not limiting your carb intake, serve the ratatouille over boiled pasta.  I prefer penne rigate or rigatoni.