The Kiddie Kitchen: September 2011

We had a blast today, the ages ranged from 3yo to 6yo. We made Ratatouille from the veggies from the local farmers and we made stuffed apples wrapped in Filo dough. It was yummy!!!
For the next two Sunday's we will be holding kids cooking classes at the farmers market in Westport CT at Christies Country Store at 161 Cross Hwy.
Here is the Ratatouille recipe we used today. we also topped it with grated Parmesan cheese. it was soooo good.

Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 cup crushed tomato

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small eggplant (Italian, Japanese any small one’s will work well)
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash (yellow zucchini)
1 red bell pepper
Italian herbs
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Pour crushed tomato into bottom of an oval baking dish and sprinkle with Italian herbs and salt and pepper, cover the bottom. Sprinkle chopped garlic cloves and chopped onion and olive oil into the sauce.

3. Trim the eggplant, yellow and green zucchini, slice red pepper removing the stem and seed,

4. On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, less than ¼ inch thick.

5. On top of the crushed tomato sauce, arrange slices one veggie at a time: 1 eggplant, 1 yellow squash, 1 green zucchini, 1 slice of pepper and keep going around that way in a oval pattern from outer pan to center of the baking dish. Drizzle a little olive oil over the vegetables and season them with salt and pepper. Sprinkle some more Italian herbs over the veggies. Cover with a little bit more of crushed tomato like ¼ cup.

6. Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but careful not to over cook. You should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

7. Serve with fresh grated Parmesan cheese on top. Enjoy!!