Simply Delicious

When I told my kids that we would be having Ratatouille pasta for dinner last week, they were ecstatic. Not because they like the dish (they had in fact never tasted it before) but because of the movie. They are just obsessed with the little rat, Remy, who is bitten by the cooking bug and goes on to become a wonderful chef. Every time they watch it, Aidan asks what the rat is making when he layers sliced aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes. And every time he repeats “ratatouille” like it’s some magical word.

I decided to chop all the vegetables and place them in a roasting dish with garlic and thyme to roast (as this is the easiest and laziest way of making ratatouille) and roasted them until they were golden brown and caramelised on the edges. I then added tinned cherry tomatoes and left it to roast for another 15 minutes while I got on with making the pasta. When the pasta was cooked, I adjusted the seasoning of the sauce and added a splash of the cooking water from the pasta before tossing the pasta in the rich tomato sauce. This was one of the easiest meals I have ever cooked and was gobbled up by my family in minutes. And it’s perfect for Meatless Monday!