How to cook ratatouille

Gather all of your ingredients and place them in a pot and take a picture. OH wait, thats how I cook now, you can probably skip the photo. Although if you do, tweet me a pic. ;)

Peel your onions and cut em in half

Cut into large slices, keeping it all together.

Turn the onion 90 degrees and cut into large chunks.

Now that we are done with the teary eyed part, we will move on to the peppers. I've found the best way to deal with peppers is to cut them in half and then pinch the stem out of it.

next just rip the membranes out with your big strong hands.

Slice each half into 1/2 inch wedges, then line them up and cut the the curved top off.

Continue to chunk em up.

Peel your eggplant or aubergine or whatever the heck you decide to call this lovely little bugger.

Large vertical slices

then separate them into halves and cut more vertical slices to produce long sticks. Then turn them 90 degrees, keeping them in their natural shape and cube them.

Cut the tips and tails off your zucchini and then half them.

next cut them into quarters.

You guessed it. Cubes now. I think your getting the idea ;)

Take those pesky cores out of your tomatoes.

Thick slices with a sharp or serrated knife.

Now cube them. I usually flip them so I am always cutting into a side of the tomato and not through the skin. Even the sharpest knifes can have trouble with tomato skin .

Peel and chop your garlic. Roughly chopped is fine as this dish will be simmering for quite a bit.

Gather everything together and get ready to get your cook on.

Heat a large enough pot with oil .

Saute your onions first. Try not to get too much color as we just want to soften them slightly.

Once it's steaming, add the garlic.

after the garlic sweats a bit, add the peppers.

A couple minutes later, add the zucchini and eggplant.

Once everything is hot, add the tomatoes.

Allright, pot is full. Turn the heat to just over medium.

Pop a lid on and get your mess cleaned up.

After about 10 minutes open it up and give a stir. Then replace the lid.

Here we are after about 20 minutes. Another stir and replace the lid. The lid is important as it keeps the steam from escaping.

30 minutes this is looking good. Another stirring and replace the lid

40 minutes. Stir and remove the lid. Now that everything is stewed together we are going to want to reduce the liquid a bit.

Cook it down to your desired consistency. Finish the dish with fresh basil or chives, salt and pepper and some olive oil.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my recipes. Don't forget to boost my ego with a "<3" or a "follow". Lots more recipes coming this winter. Enjoy.