Ratatouille and Garlic Shrimp

I am a huge vegetable lover and I will pretty much eat all of them. There’s a small fruit and vegetable market near my house where the produce is amazingly affordable. The majority of it comes from Mexico, with the remainder coming locally from Arizona and neighboring states. This allows us to get fruits and vegetables for rock bottom prices all year long. We are incredibly lucky and visit them weekly.

One thing that I don’t have a lot of experience with is eggplant. One day in the market they had fresh eggplant and they were beautiful. Deep, dark purple and glistening. Although I had absolutely no idea of what I would do with it I had to have one. So I brought it home and started going through my binder of “recipes to try someday” for anything that I could do with this eggplant. I came across a recipe for Ratatouille from Real Simple magazine that I had saved. I had to adjust it as the original recipe made 18 cups (REALLY?) but changing a recipe is not that big of a deal for me. Also, I started wondering what we would have with it? Then I thought of what I had on hand to use and this recipe for Ratatouille with Garlic Shrimp was born. Yum.

There are a fair amount of steps to this recipe but if you chop everything beforehand, they go really quickly.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add chopped bell peppers, onions, 1 tablespoon of garlic and 1/4 tsp kosher salt. Cook, stirring often, until softened, 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Set aside.

Return the pot to the heat and add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil. When oil is hot, add chopped eggplant to the pot and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pot and put into bowl with bell pepper mixture.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pot and return to heat. Add zucchini to the pot and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. You don’t have to peel the zucchini – I did just because they had to be used or thrown away and had spots on the skin. Yuck.

While the zucchini is cooking, add the oregano and thyme to the bell pepper mixture. Stir to combine. When zucchini has softened, add the bell pepper mixture back into the pot and stir. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low , and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir in cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cover and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until tomatoes begin to burst.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. Add remaining tablespoon of minced garlic and shrimp. cook, stirring often, until shrimp are cooked through and pink in color. Stir in lemon juice. Reduce heat to low.

Uncover ratatouille, stir in 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar and season to taste with ground black pepper. Spoon ratatouille into bowls and top with garlic shrimp. This is so delicious you might want to look up the original recipe on Real Simple and make 18 cups worth! Enjoy!