Roasted Ratatouille

Admittedly, this recipe is about one week late. Last week’s box contents were a perfect mix for ratatouille – eggplant, zucchini, garlic, onion, and parsley. But many of you, like me I suspect, have vegetables that hang around the week after and this is a perfect recipe for clearing out your refrigerator. There are a lot of variations and styles of ratatouille and everyone has their favorite. I am a big fan of roasting and I like my vegetables to remain separate and distinct, so this version is perfect for my tastes. You can serve this bruschetta-style on toasted bread with goat cheese. Or, as a side dish to fish or poultry, warm or room temperature.

As I was researching this recipe, I discovered a little tidbit about eggplants that I never knew: there are male and female eggplants! Females have more seeds and some people find them more bitter than their male counterparts. Who knew? You learn something new every day.

Click here to download and print a pdf of this recipe:

Roasted Ratatouille

Eggplant Caviar

Recipes are like playing the telephone game – one person gets a recipe from a cookbook, they add their own twist and they pass it along to a friend. That friend changes an ingredient here and there, then gives it to their sister. She makes her version and on it goes. That’s what is great about cooking – recipes are constantly evolving and changing to suit the needs and tastes of the individual cook. You can put your unique stamp on a dish and call it your own.

Eggplant Caviar started with a recipe from Tom Coliccio’s book Think Like a Chef. Josh Kulp, chef at Sunday Dinner, adapted Tom’s recipe to create a party dip. I tasted Josh’s version and recreated it in my kitchen and created the version that you’re seeing here.

And if you’re wondering about the name, Tom Coliccio called his original recipe “Eggplant Caviar”. Recently, I was reading up on eggplant and various ways to prepare it, and found out that the name “Baba Ghanoush” translates to “Poor Man’s Caviar”, which I’m assuming was the inspiration for the name of Tom’s recipe.

Click here to download and print a pdf of this recipe:

Eggplant Caviar