MY MOTHER'S TRADITIONAL PISTO (Spanish ratatouille)

Pisto is the Spanish version of the ratatouille (great way to use many of the vegetables in your garden!). It is a simple dish that can be served warm or cold as a tapa along with a beautiful baguette of bread and some sliced manchego cheese and chorizo on the side. It is also traditionally served with fried eggs for lunch. Although it takes almost 2 1/2 hours to make this dish, it is well worth the time!!! I hope that you enjoy this recipe as it holds a special place in my heart filled with memories of standing by my mother’s side by the stove as a child and watching her make this dish. I remember i could hardly wait to put heaping spoonfuls of my mother’s Pisto on that fresh warm baguette bread. Buen Apetito!

Ingredients:

1 large onion roughly chopped

2 cups of sliced zucchini

1 cup of roughly chopped red pepper

1 cup of roughly chopped green pepper

2 cups of roughly chopped eggplant

4 fresh tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

4 garlic cloves

1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

2 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp of dried thyme

1/2 cup of extra virgen olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Add olive oil to a deep pan and add onions and red and green peppers. Saute and cook down for about 40 minutes on medium-low heat until soft and slightly caramelized, remove from pan. Add a little more oil to the pan and add the zucchini and eggplant to the pan and cook down about 40 minutes until soft and slightly caramelized and then remove from pan. Add a little more oil to the pan and add the tomatoes and garlic and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down into a sauce and have deepened in color. Add all the cooked vegetables to the tomatoes and toss them together on low heat. Add some salt and pepper to taste, add the chopped parsley and toss together for about another five-ten minutes. Pisto can be served warm, at room temperature, or cold. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen and thawed and re-heated.