After a day of March Madness and busted brackets, we had dear friends over for dinner.  We did three of these hanger steaks on the grill and paired them with this beautiful ratatouille recipe from the cookbook my mother in law got me for Christmas.  What is ratatouille you say?  Beyond being so fun to say, this is a seasonal mix of vegetables, olive oil, and garlic coming from the Provence region of France. I made a few modifications to the original for a healthier version for our friends. My wonderful friend Annie helped with all the chopping!

Ingredients:

• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1 can (12 ounces) tomato puree
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• ½ medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bell pepper
• 1 large Chinese eggplant or other long, skinny eggplant
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 large yellow squash
• 3 or 4 smallish Yukon gold potatoes, unpeeled (about ¾ pound)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 4 ounces soft goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh basil leaves

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F with one rack about 4 inches from the broiler and another rack in the center position. Mist a sheet pan with cooking spray.
2. Dump the tomato puree onto the prepared sheet pan. Add the garlic, onion, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper, toss to combine. Use a rubber spatula to spread the puree evenly over the pan, distributing the onion and garlic throughout and pushing the sauce into the corners of the pan.
3. Cut off the top of the peppers and carefully pull out the seeds and membrane. Use a sharp knife to slice the pepper into 1/8- to ¼-inch-thick rounds, then slice the rounds into thirds – you’ll end up with a bunch of small curved pepper pieces.
4. Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini, and squash. Slice each into thin rounds, 1/8- to ¼-inch thick. Slice potatoes into rounds of the same thickness.
5. Carefully arrange the vegetables over the tomato sauce, overlapping them in a deliberate pattern going from short end to short end of the pan. You’ll be able to see a bit of tomato sauce at the sides of the pan, but the vegetable layer should be tight enough that you don’t see much.
6. Drizzle the vegetables with the olive oil, sprinkle with the thyme and an extra pinch each of salt and pepper. Bake the ratatouille on the center rack until the vegetables are tender and the tomato sauce is bubbling up at the edges, 30 to 40 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and turn the oven to broil. Break the goat cheese into large crumbles and scatter them evenly over the ratatouille. Broil to gently melt the cheese, about 1 minute.
8. Sprinkle the chopped basil on top of the ratatouille and serve warm with plenty of crusty bread for scooping up vegetables and sauce.

Yields 8 servings

Allergens:

• This recipe is eggless.
• This recipe is gluten free.
• This recipe is nut free.
• This recipe is soy free.
• This recipe is vegetarian.

Nutrition information:

Photographs: