The French work hard for their food. Every French recipe I read takes hours and usually consists of chopping. I chopped and chopped and sautéed and chopped and sliced my finger and chopped… This is a time if you have children, make them work. Make them chop. Isn’t that what they are good for anyways?
From the Silver Palate Cookbook
- 2 cups good quality olive oil
- 4 small eggplants
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 pounds white onions
- 7 medium zucchinis
- 2 medium bell peppers
- 2 medium green peppers
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 3 cans (16 ounces each) plum tomatoes, drained
- 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1/4 cup dill, chopped
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- Fresh ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cube the eggplant and put in a roasting pan.
Toss with 1 cup of olive oil and sprinkle with the salt. Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 35 minutes.
Dice the onion.
Quarter the zucchini and then cut into 2 inch strips.
Slice the peppers.
In a large skillet (you probably need two) heat the second cup of oil. Add the onions.
Then the zucchini.
And the peppers. Saute the onions, zucchini, peppers, and garlic over medium heat for 20 minutes.
Mix together the tomato products.
Mix the herbs–I used dried parsley because I’m lazy.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste,
the herbs,
and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add eggplant and cook for another ten minutes. Taste for salt and pepper, then serve. Makes 12 servings.
Counting the calories in this is very hard based on the different-sized vegetables. Most of the calories come from the olive oil and tomatoes, so if you are worried, cut down on the amount of olive oil you use on roasting the eggplant. I made a quarter of this recipe, and guessed each serving was around 200-300 calories.
