Farmer's Market Ratatouille

When I graduated last May, all my classmates packed up their futons and moved out of their houses or apartments or dorms, I stayed right here working in the lab. This is the end of summer vacation; I no longer have even that week between the end of finals and the start of an internship. I now leave my house at 8:30 and don't get back till 7, 5 days a week, no free breaks. This feels disturbingly like being an adult.

Other small changes suggesting the onset of adulthood have sneaked into my life. I often go to bed before 11. I use my computer more for work than I do for fun. I have an actual budget. And I regularly get my ass up out of bed on Saturday morning and walk to the farmer's market before 9 am to get things like corn, handmade fresh mozzarella, arugula, and The Good Tomatoes.

One of my favorite things to make after the farmer's market, or anytime in the summer for that matter, is ratatouille. It takes these amazing fresh veggies and doesn't mess them up. It keeps for like, a week, microwaves perfectly, makes a yummy lunch to bring to work.

I found these adorable baby zebra eggplants, a pint of small roma tomatoes, and a few small zucchinni and a bunch of green onions (all of which cost, like $6. Seriously). The cool thing about ratatouille is that you can play with the proportions of stuff, add a bell pepper, or not, substitute cherry tomatoes for big ones, or yellow squash for zucchinni, a different kind of onion... It's a completely foolproof and intuitive dish- in a Dutch oven sautee onions and pepper if using, add cut up eggplant, cook for a bit, add zucchini, cook till tender, stir in cut up tomatoes and season. Most recipes I've seen just call for fresh thyme, which is all you need, but it's also great with a few big teaspoons of herbs de provence and a generous pour of balsamic vinegar.

After a few bowls of this, I might eat it over pasta, stuff it in a pita, spoon in on to crostini with some parmasean cheese, mix it with quinoa (my favorite), or mix it with a can of white beans and cover it with breadcrumbs and parmasean to make an excellent gratin. This is especially fun to serve to those people who claim to not like eggplant, or tomatoes, or vegetables in general. Somehow they always make an exception for this.