Eat In. Ratatouille.

Before the movie with the cute rat chef (Luigi), ratatouille was the name for the amazing, tasty French soup. Colorful, healthy, easy, and fast, ratatouille can be a quick fancy dish for a dinner at home, and can be served either as a soup, sauce over noodles, or as a tagine over quinoa. It really is quite versatile.

When doing your shopping for this, be sure to pick out different color vegetables to give it a really pretty appearance and diversify the nutrients you absorb.

What you'll need:

--one eggplant, cubbeded

--two tomatoes (heirloom would be best if they're in season)

--An orange bell pepper for color; it can be red too sliced julian-style

--one white onion, coursely chopped

--One zucchini,

--minced garlic; the frozen Dorot is great with this

--Herb de provence

--vegetable stock (only if you're making this into a soup)

1. Start by adding garlic and coursely chopped onion to a large heated sauce pan with olive oil. You will definitely want a large sauce pan, because all the ingredients plus some water or vegetable stock will have to fit in the pan.

2. Cover with a pan cover, and allow to soften.

3. Add chopped bell pepper. Periodically throughout the cooking process, while you are adding ingredients to the pan, add herb de provence and salt and pepper to taste.

you can always add more garlic too, but best to do that early.

4. Add chopped vegetables in order of how fast they cook. So, zucchini next, then eggplant, and last tomato.

5. When the eggplant and tomato are dissolved, you will know it is ready to serve!

-To serve as a pasta sauce or as a tagine over quinoa, take the vegetables off the heat a bit earlier, when they aren't fully dissolved.

-To have as a soup, wait until all the vegetables have softened, and are in a good amount of broth. You can also add some water or vegetable stock to help facilitate this process.

-- Lauren Williams