Now, first of all I would like to offer an apology to my father in this post. He makes pretty epic ratatouille and I didn’t actually get chance to ask him how he makes his. Anyway, ratatouille is a pretty amazing way of eating a lot of vegetables in one meal. As with nearly all tomato based sauces the flavour develops over time so the leftovers will almost certainly taste better than it does fresh from the pot (it’s still pretty nice freshly made). In addition, its nice with a lot of things – cheesy things, roast meat, grilled chicken, steak. It’s also a vegan and vegetarian friendly recipe.

To make this you will need:

2 cans tomatoes

A large red onion or 2 smaller onions

2 peppers (any colour you like but its a good way of using up green peppers if you dislike them)

A clove of garlic

1 tsp olive oil

2 medium courgettes (unfortunately my ratatouille was lacking these due to their absence from my local Co-op)

1 aubergine

2/3 pack of mushrooms (I used chestnuts, but white ones are fine)

2 peppers

1 teaspoon dried basil

A good slosh of red wine or balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

A pinch salt

(This makes a rather large amount of ratatouille, at least 4 servings)

Wash and quarter your mushrooms, dice the aubergine, slice and quarter the courgettes, remove the seeds and chop up the peppers. Put the vegetables to one side. Peel the onion/onions. Dice one half of the onion(s) and slice the other half. Crush the garlic. Heat the oil in a deep pan and fry the onion and garlic until soft.

Once the onions and garlic are soft, add the other vegetables and fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the canned tomatoes, the sugar, salt, vinegar and basil.

Mix thoroughly and cover for about 20 minutes on a low heat. You can cook it for slightly longer if you wish.

Serve with whatever you fancy.

Now this recipe is really easy for a weeknight, or if you find it difficult to find time to cook when you’re busy you could make a big batch of this up to reheat as you need it.