Broiled salmon, ratatouille and couscous

Over the holiday I Tivo'd Ratatouille for something good visually to check out the new TV. Since then though I've been wondering what exactly is ratatouille.

Tonight I decided to make it. I served it with a simple broiled salmon fillet (with olive oil, garlic, onion, black pepper and parsley) and couscous (arguably a French connection given their north african connections; made with our home canned chicken stock, black pepper, onion, garlic and parsley). The couscous sucked up a bit of juice from each of the salmon and the ratatouille and really just connected the whole thing into a scrumptuous meal.

The following is a combination of my thoughts plus the Smitten Kitchen's take on the movie Ratatouille and a random glance through the top hits on google for "ratatouille recipe".

Ratatouille:

• 1c diced/stewed tomatoes


• 1 red onion, diced


• 5 cloves garlic, minced


• olive oil


• ground black pepper


• ground thyme


• parsley flakes


• white wine


• 2 bay leaves


• 1 each red, green, yellow bell peppers, guts/seeds removed


• 1 eggplant


• 1 green zucchini


• 8oz cherry tomatoes, chopped


• grated mizithra (or parm or hunks of feta, goat or what floats your boat) cheese

Start oven heating to 375F.

Pour stewed tomatoes in bottom of 9-10" Pyrex baking dish. Lay bay leaves in dish.

Saute onion in olive oil with black pepper, thyme and parsley. Add garlic at end once onions are cooked, stir briefly, layer on top of tomatoes in baking dish.

De-glaze saute pan with a bit of white wine. Pour reduced wine into baking dish.

Thinly slice peppers, zucchini and egg plant. Stand these around throughout inside of the baking dish, alternating eggplant, zucchini and peppers.

Layer any remaining vegetables on top of the baking dish decoratively.

Add additional black pepper, thyme and parsley, and then sprinkle chopped cherry tomatoes on top. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil.

Cut parchment paper to fit inside top of dish.

Bake at 375F for about 45 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked. Vegetables should be cooked and releasing juices and the sauce be bubbling, but the veggies shouldn't be dissolving into mush.

Sprinkle top with cheese and serve.