Market basket: What to do with so many veggies! Make a ratatouille

It’s here … the garden glut! All summer long, you have likely been able to keep up with the harvest through sharing with friends, vegetable dinners as well as some canning and freezing. But now it’s ripening with a vengeance, and it’s getting difficult to keep up.

Enter ratatouille! This popular French (Provence region) dish is perfect for incorporating loads of fresh vegetables and those herbs that demand cutting into one delicious stew. The name comes from the verb “touiller,” which means to mix or stir. It’s easy to make, easy to serve and easy to freeze the excess for later use.

Traditionally, the stew combines eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, zucchini, olive oil, garlic and a plethora of herbs. The vegetables are sauteed separately and then combined or sauteed together from the start. The key is quick, fast heating because you want the vegetables to maintain integrity.

I have had ratatouille served warm and cold, but I prefer it at room temperature after it has melded in the refrigerator for a couple of hours at least. I typically make it the night before I will be serving it because it’s even better the longer it “gets to know each other” as my Mother used to say.

These days, you can vary the vegetables according to anything you have in abundance but I rarely stray from the tried and true original. I might use a variety of colored bell peppers, but that’s as far as I stray. If you don’t have fresh herbs on hand, use Herbs de Provence. It’s a dried blend of rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram, summer savory, lavender and fennel seeds.

To freeze, just ladle the mixture into freezer containers, label, date and plop in the freezer. Use it within three months for the best quality. Leftovers that are refrigerated should be used within four days.

Raquel Martin of St. Louis asks “Please advise me on steaming vegetables. I am using a steamer on the stove, following the times recommended but my vegetables invariably turn out soggy.”

Raquel,

I am assuming you are using a steamer that has water in the bottom pot, then is topped with another that has holes in the bottom. Make sure the bottom of the steamer pot doesn’t touch the water in the bottom pot. Otherwise you are boiling them rather than steaming. Only use enough water to create steam.

Tammy Algood is the author of five cookbooks and can be seen on “Volunteer Gardener” on PBS stations in Tennessee. Follow her at www.hauteflavor.com