Ratatouille

First make a simple tomato sauce. Peel and finely chop three of four cloves of garlic and with a couple of tablespoonfuls of olive oil to a thick bottomed saucepan. Put over a low heat and soften stirring from time to time. Drop the tomatoes into boiling water and then take them out one by one and remove the skin.

Chop the tomatoes in half on a chopping board, remove most of the seeds and put in a sieve over a bowl. Add the tomatoes to the saucepan, along with any juice from the board. Use a spoon to get more juice from the sieve and bowl and add this as well. Discard the seeds.

Up the heat to medium and stir and crush the tomatoes from time to time. When they are fairly mashed down, drop the heat, cover and cook for five minutes or so or until completely soft.

If using baby tomatoes, put the tomato mixture through a mouli legume. If using normal sized tomatoes which you have skinned just use a fork to bring the sauce to an even consistancy. Season with salt and keep to one side  Picture  .

Peel and chop the onions and put in a thick bottomed saucepan along with a couple of tablespoonfuls of olive oil. Put over a low heat and soften for five minutes or so.

Quarter the peppers, discard the seeds and pith and cut into thin strips. Add to the onions and soften for a further five minutes stirring from time to time  Picture  .

Top and tail the courgettes and cut into slices about a cm thick. Stir into the pepper/onion mixture, cover the pan and cook for five minutes or until the courgettes are almost soft.

Meanwhile top and tail the aubergine(s), cut into cm thick slices and then into quarters. Stir into the courgettes etc and cook covered for a furthur five minutes. Everything should be soft but not mushy, cook a little further if need be.

Add ¾ of the tomato sauce to the vegetables and stir in so that it is a thick mixture adding more tomato sauce if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Put to one side if need be.

Carefully rewarm the ratatouille when ready, chop some basil and sprinkle over and serve  Picture  .