ORGNL: Roasted Ratatouille

This is something I cooked up today - an original recipe. It is known that I get organic fruits and veggies delivered regularly but sometimes when life gets busy, I don't have time to cook them. So they sit in the fridge waiting to be cooked and devoured. Today, Sis and I just came back from shopping. We first thought of going to Chin Chin for an early dinner but we both weren't hungry after a satisfying meal at Kenzan so we headed home after shopping at the newly opened Uniqlo and H&M.

I stopped at The Common Good grocer for some bread and a bottle of pasta sauce. I got the JimJam Veggie Patch Pasta Sauce. If you can get your hands on one of these, please do! This is officially one of the tastiest pasta sauces I've ever had. You won't regret it. Now, back to the recipe.








Why I like this: It tastes like pizza on a dish...and it's vegetarian!

What to do for next time: Add a chopped red onion and add fresh basil before the last step of melting the cheese. Add a bit of heat like dried chili flakes.

My ingredients list was quite simple - this is virtually any vegetable you can think of. From my fridge, I used and chopped up the following:

1 medium sized carrot
1 head of broccoli
2 zucchinis
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
5 whole fresh mushrooms
2 very ripe tomatoes
a bag of green beans - less than 300g
JimJam Veggie Patch Pasta Sauce or any store bought tomato based pasta sauce
mozzarella cheese to taste
shredded cheddar cheese to taste

I washed, chopped and placed everything (except the green beans and tomatoes) on a baking tray lined with baking paper. I sprinkled dried parsley, dried basil, dried thyme, salt, pepper and some olive oil, all to taste. I usually use less the amount of thyme compared to parsley and basil because I thought the flavour of dried thyme is too strong. I placed this in a 180C oven for 15 minutes until the veggies are tender.

Next, place all of this in an oven proof dish and mix around 5-6 tablespoons of the pasta sauce into the dish. Then add the chopped tomatoes and green beans. You can choose to blanch the green beans to get rid of the raw taste but I like them this way. Don't put too much sauce because the tomatoes will ooze out more juices. It will overcook the veggies and make them soggy.

Then, slice up some mozzarella just enough to cover the top. I also used some cheddar cheese (just because I happen to have them in the fridge) just enough to cover the top. Cheddar first then mozzarella. Bake in a 200C oven for 10-15 minutes or until the top bubbly. Serve warm with a pieces of bread. Enjoy!

The best part about this dish is the sauce, so don't forget to soak it all up with bread or pasta! Bon appetit!