The Woodee Ratatouille

With a glut of ripe tomatoes and courgettes about, this is a delicious and fresh summer ratatouille recipe cooked outdoors over fire.
A great vegan/vegetarian recipe on its own with some crusty bread or serve as a side to lamb.

Ingredients

• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 aubergine
• 2 courgettes
• 2 red, yellow or green peppers or a mixture
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 60g button mushrooms
• Squirt of tomato puree
• ½ a bunch of fresh basil, (15g)
• Rapeseed oil
• A few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 x 400 g tin of quality plum tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• ½ lemon

Let’s Cook:

1. Prep your ingredients before you start – peel and cut the onions into wedges, then peel and finely slice the garlic. Trim the aubergine, deseed the peppers and chop into chunks and slice the courgettes. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Pick the basil leaves and set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the cooking tray on a medium heat, add the chopped aubergines, courgettes, peppers and garlic and fry for around 5 minutes or until golden and softened, but not cooked through. Push the cooked vegetables to the side of the tray.
3. Add a little more oil to the tray, and when hot add the onion, and thyme leaves. Fry for 5 to 10 minutes, or until softened and golden.
4. Pull the cooked vegetables from the sides, and combine them with the onions, stir in the fresh and tinned tomatoes a squirt of tomato puree and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Mix well, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Keep siring to prevent everything from sticking and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has reduced, finishing with the balsamic vinegar.
5. Tear in the basil leaves, finely grate in the lemon zest and adjust the seasoning, if needed. Serve with a hunk of fresh artisan bread (we used a dark and white sour dough loaf from Alex Gooch) Enjoy!