Ratatouille .

Preparation and cooking time: all morning

Ingredients: 1kg onions, 1.5kg courgettes, 3 red peppers, 2 aubergines (500g), 2kg tomatoes, 1 head of garlic, 1 ‘bouquet garni’ (with a stick of celery and 4 laurel leaves), salt, pepper, olive oil and groundnut oil, 1 teaspoon of rosemary honey.

Preparation: cook the peppers under a gas flame. Don’t be afraid to burn them, as they need to blacken like coal. Next, rinse them under the tap and the charred bits will drain away. Remove their seeds and cut into 3cm squares. Fry them in 4 teaspoons of olive oil under a low heat, and once cooked, drain them in a colander. Watch out – peppers burn quickly when fried.

Peel and dice the onions, and lightly brown them in a big pan with groundnut oil. Salt the onions when they have finished cooking and drain them with the peppers.

Peel and roughly cube the courgettes, and fry them in olive oil. Salt them after cooking. As with the other vegetables, drain the courgettes.

Do the same for the aubergines (peel, cube, fry and drain), but save the drained oil.

Peel, de-seed and quarter the tomatoes. Put them in an enamel cooking pot with olive oil and a bouquet garni. Peel the garlic, and crush each clove, before adding to the tomatoes. Add the honey. In a shallow pan, put all the vegetables and 2 glasses of water, and mix. Adjust seasoning and cover with a lid.

Finish cooking in the oven for 45 minutes at 200°C (gas mark 6/7). Before serving, remove the bouquet garni and, if you wish, add around 30 basil leaves.

Recipe taken from ‘La Cuisine du soleil’ by Gui Gedda, published by Jeanne Laffite.