Pesto ratatouille
Ingredients
1 zucchini, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
Pesto
How to
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet until very hot. Add the onions and saute until they begin to become translucent. Add the pepper and zucchini to the pan and sauté for another five minutes before adding the tomatoes and cooking for another five. Toss in the garlic and stir until fragrant, no more than 30 seconds. Stir in the pesto and serve warm or at room temperature.
Grilled vegetable ratatouille
2 tomatoes, halves
2 red peppers, halved
2 ears of corn
2 zucchini, cut into quarter-inch rounds
1 medium onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
Basil, roughly torn
How to
It was Alice Waters night in the Bartholomew-Pitoniak household. Alongside her grilled fish recipe I decided to try out grilled vegetable ratatouille from The Art of Simple Food.
First, pick your veggies. Go with what's fresh and looks good; don't be too particular about what follows here or in the Waters Bible. Tonight it was corn, tomatoes, zucchini, red peppers and onions. Trim them and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
In a vegetable grilling contraption over medium heat on the grill, I place the two halved tomatoes flat side down alongside the halved peppers. After they began to brown I added the zucchini and onions. The corn went on the grill still on the cob. There's very little to add here in terms of guidance -- just keep an eye on things, allow them to develop a nice char, and remove them. Strip the kernels from the ears of corn, cut the vegetables into half-inch pieces, and toss the whole thing with salt, pepper, olive oil, a clove or two of minced garlic and a few leaves of roughly torn basil. Anna even went into the backyard to pick the basil from our struggling little plant, a detail that made us feel like a couple of little Bay Area Alice Waters acolytes.
Soba, cabbage, chicken, pickled zucchini
Wednesday was Fourth of July, meaning a whole crowd of people joined us in our backyard for burgers, chicken, hot dogs, coleslaw, and a few beers. But what to do with all the leftovers? Easy -- cold soba noodles.
The cabbage was undressed, and leftover from the slaw. Chicken cutlets were simply marinated -- olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, lemon juice, a little hot sauce -- and we just yanked them out of the fridge when the soba noodles were ready. The pickled zucchini were a result of having too much fresh zucchini left over; rather than let it rot, I tossed it into the brine of some pickles I'd made for the Wednesday party. Two days later they still had some snap.
The rest is easy. Boil the noodles. Dunk them in cold water. Toss them with a dressing of ginger and soy sauce (see this post from last month). Fast, resourceful, refreshing, tasty as hell.
Zucchini, parsley, lemon
Doesn't get a whole lot easier than this. Slice zucchini into quarter-inch rounds. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. When it's nice and hot, add the zucchini, stir to coat, and allow the rounds to sit and develop some nice brown spots. When ready, throw in some salt, pepper, lemon juice, and parsley, and serve.