Cooking with Kyler/#SGNCookOff "RataTully" Our spin on ratatouille/caponata

We are big fans of @SomeGoodNews and as soon as we saw they were doing an episode catered to #SGNCookOff we just had to create a cooking video for them. Kyler said she wanted to make the ratatouille recipe I make. Kyler is in total control in the video and in fact I'm behind the camera. It's all Kyler.

This is our spin on taking the two peasant dishes "ratatouille" and "caponata" and making it our own. We love the briney saltiness of the olives and capers. We don't add any pine nuts like you might in caponata only because of a nut allergy (by me). There are so many ways of making this right down to how big you chop your vegetables. We choose somewhere in the "medium-small" chop category. We also choose to use tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes, but both ways are delicious and we have been known to change it up.

The amount of each vegetable usually always changes. We love leftovers and this recipe goes great on its on, over pasta, rice, or served with grilled bread.

We call it "RataTully"

Here's a list of our staple ingredients for our recipe.

1 large Italian eggplant - chopped medium/small
2 medium size zucchini chopped medium/small
1-2 small yellow squash chopped medium/small
20-28oz. of crushed tomatoes (we usually go around 20 oz. and add about 1/2 cup water) But play with it and find what you like.
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
1/2 red onion
1 pasilla pepper medium/small chop
1 1/2 tablespoons capers with brine (adds a delicious salty umami)
1-2 anchovy's (you can do it!)
1/4-1/2 cup mixed olives (Spanish green, nicoise, kalamata) mix them and choose good quality.
Freshly chopped herbs (basil, thyme, parsley) to name a few. +throw a stalk of basil leaves whole into the pot just before simmering.
lemon juice - we tend to give a generous squeeze after the simmering process
Good quality extra virgin olive oil (it's fun to infuse it with a sliced chili pepper, crushed garlic and thyme)
salt & pepper to taste

In a hot large pan, or pot add a good amount of the olive oil. Once you see it shimmer and shine, add your eggplant, season it, stir and let it brown a little. 5-10 minutes. Remove it from the pot into a separate bowl, then add the zucchini and squash (same process). Then add the onion, garlic and pepper. While this trio is dancing to transparency, add the anchovy and let it dissolve. Warning: this pungent smell will waft through the house, so turn on the fan. You either like it or you don't but the anchovy adds a rich depth of flavor (like the capers).

Go ahead and add all the vegetables you just heated up then add the sauce (or tomatoes if using). Add some water if you think it needs to look a little more stewy. That's how we like it. Add the herbs, olives, capers, and seasoning. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
(I usually leave the lid slightly off to let the liquid reduce a tad.)

When it's done, give a generous squeeze of lemon juice and season it up to your liking.

This is our basic version of "RataTully". It's incredibly comforting, affordable, and healthy.

Stay safe everyone. It's certainly a strange time and we are putting positive vibrations out to those who really need the healing most.

@SomeGoodNews #SGN
We love what you're are doing and to show our appreciation, this virtual recipe is for you, but we wish we could feed this to you in person. ;-)

#jukedeck @jukedeck