Brick

The Fourth of July calls for red, white and blue. But if it’s inde­pen­dence we’re cel­e­brat­ing, why not red, green, yel­low and purple?

Rata­touille is a south­ern Euro­pean, mid-summer, veg­e­tar­ian casse­role, ideal for when you return from the farm­ers mar­ket with way too much. The chick­peas make this a one-pot meal; bread crumbs are to thicken the broth. (Nei­ther are part of a tra­di­tional rata­touille, and I haven’t yet found a recipe to men­tion stir­ring before serv­ing, either. Lay­ers are pretty, but so are mosaics.) Because the pro­duce all is fresh, mea­sure­ments can­not be pre­cise. Here’s a ratio, though: Cut up, there should be about a quart each of egg­plant, zuc­chini and toma­toes, and a pint each of onions and pep­pers. Count on 45 min­utes to prep and 1.5 hours to bake. Adapted mainly from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Every­thing Veg­e­tar­ian.

• 1.5 to 2 pounds egg­plant (about 6 Ori­en­tal or 2 globe)
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided use
• 2 large onions, peeled and sliced
• 2 or 3 bell pep­pers, red, yel­low or green, cored and seeded, cut in half-inch pieces
• 1 to 1.5 pounds zuc­chini or other sum­mer squash, cut in half-inch slices
• 4–6 toma­toes, cut in half-inch cubes
• 1 14–15 oz. can chick­peas, drained
• 4 cloves gar­lic, peeled and minced
• 3 tea­spoons dried herbs (thyme, oregano, tar­ragon, mar­jo­ram etc.) OR 1/4 cup fresh herbs, chopped roughly
• 1/2 tea­spoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 to 1/2 tea­spoon hot sauce
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs or matzo meal
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh pars­ley or fresh basil
• Parme­san cheese

Peel the egg­plant and cut into half-inch cubes if globe style, or half-inch slices if slen­der Ori­en­tal style. Place pieces in bowl, sprin­kle 2 tea­spoons salt and mix thor­oughly. Place salted egg­plant in colan­der placed in a bowl to catch the bit­ter liq­uid. Let sit no less than 30 min­utes, while prepar­ing the rest.

Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 1 Table­spoon olive oil in medium (5–6 quart) casse­role or Dutch oven, over the bot­tom and up the sides.

Rinse well the egg­plant pieces in run­ning water and drain. Fill the casse­role in lay­ers. While the order doesn’t mat­ter, I like the onions and pep­pers on the bot­tom. Then the egg­plant, squash, toma­toes, gar­lic and chick­peas. Mix the hot sauce with the remain­ing 3 Table­spoons olive oil and driz­zle over the top. The pot will be nearly full.

Bake one hour cov­ered. Once or twice dur­ing the hour press on the mix­ture with a spat­ula. Sprin­kle bread crumbs or matzo meal over the mix­ture and bake another 15 min­utes with no lid.

Stir well then gar­nish with pars­ley or basil. Serve with Parme­san cheese at the table. Makes 6–8 servings.

The left­overs are won­der­ful. Reheat as is. Or mix a cou­ple of cups of cooled rata­touille with 4–6 cups cooked short pasta for a pasta salad, per­haps adding a lit­tle lemon juice.

Note: Other veg­eta­bles can be baked in the mix as well, if you’re clear­ing out the fridge and pantry or feed­ing a potluck. For exam­ple, 1–2 cups of sliced fresh mush­rooms, green beans or cubed pota­toes, along with the zuc­chini and toma­toes etc.