Week 15 - Ratatouille & hasselback potatoes

If Remy the Rat can make ratatouille, so can you!

A taste of the Mediterranean with colourful aubergines, courgettes and peppers slow roasted with basil in a rich tomato sauce, served with a side of crispy, hasselback potatoes.

Basic ingredients

2 small aubergines

6 big vine tomatoes

2 courgettes

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 onion

1 carton of passata (if you can't find this, get a nice quality tin of plum tomatoes)

Fresh basil

Potatoes: 1 Maris Piper per person, or you can use new potatoes if you like the daintier look (choose how many per person)

Spices: bulb of garlic (or jar/tube, chilli, smokey paprika

Luxury version (optional)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Yellow courgette (usually at a farmer's market)

Fresh parsley & fresh thyme

Balsamic vinegar

60g butter

Peppercorns (for grinding)

Collage of dishes from the cooking class

PREP

Heat oven to 180 fan/200 normal/gas mark 6

Hasselback potatoes Put your spud on big spoon and using a sharp knife CAREFULLY cut regular slices into the potato, taking care not to cut all the way through. Do these at about 2mm intervals.

Heat some butter (50g) 5 glugs of good olive oil in a fry pan: coat the cut potatoes and set aside. Top with lots of fresh black pepper.

PREP Ratatouille

Dice one onion, one red pepper and one yellow pepper. Slice courgette, aubergine and tomatoes into even slices. Mince 7 cloves of garlic.

COOK Saute the onion and peppers for a few mins until soft, then add 5 cloves of minced garlic, chilli and smokey paprika.

Pour in the passata, a good squeeze of tomato puree and a handful of basil, bit of salt and lots of black pepper (a drizzle of balsamic vinegar goes in nicely here too).

Once the sauce comes to a simmer, take off the heat. Transfer to an oven proof dish and then layer the sliced veggies on top.

Quickly mix 4-5 glugs of olive oil with a handful of torn basil, handful of thyme leaves, lots of fresh black pepper and 2 minced garlic cloves. Drizzle this over the top of your veggies.

Cover with a lid/tin foil and pop in the oven along with the potatoes.

After 40 mins, take off the foil and baste the spuds with the buttery oil. Cook for a further 20-30 minutes until the veg get a little charred on top.

GARNISH

Top with fresh basil and parsley.

Join us for a Tuesday cooking class.

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