Herby Baked Vegetables or Contorno alla Remy

Have you ever seen the film 'Ratatouille'? It is one of Alex's favourites!!
Ok, maybe not HIS favourite but the one we watch the most because...errrmm...its MY favourite!!

 If you haven't seen it, it's a Disney Pixar film that tells the story of a rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession.
When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau.
Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely - and certainly unwanted - visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.

Sounds like an unlikely story but it is a film any foodie should watch, no matter how old!

Now the Contorno, as you probably know, is the vegetable side dish that accompanies the Secondi or the main course in Italy.
There are so many recipes to choose from that I wouldn't know where to start!!

On this particular Sunday, as I was busy roasting the meat (I always have a Sunday Roast, that's the Brit in me) and preparing the pasta, I decided to enlist the helpof my 'Little Chef', aka Alex to make the Contorno.

I told him he was going to be Remy for the day and that he was going to make Remy's signature dish, ratatouille.

Well this is not strickly true.
The dish resembles ratatouille as in so much as we used tomato passata, aubergines and courgettes or zuchinni but no peppers. I could have named it Peppers-Free Ratatouille but that doesn't very romantic, now, does it?

So there you go, Baked Vegetables alla Remy, although, to be more accurate it should be called Baked Vegetables alla Alex.

Herby Baked Vegetables

Ingredients

2 sliced Aubergines

4 small courgettes/zuchinni sliced

some passata or chopped tomatoes

Some dried herbs of your choice (I used oregano,powdered garlic, rosemary, basil and sage)

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

Method

Enlist the help of a Little Chef (this step is totally optional)

Cover the bottom of your oven dish with a layer of passata

Place a layer of  aubergine slices over the passata. 

Season, add your choice of herbs and drizzle with olive oil.

Place a layer of the courgettes/zuchinni over the aubergine and as before, season, add herbs and olive oil.

Cover with a layer of passata.

Repeat the steps until you have used all your veggies up.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes on 200 degrees, et voila, mes amis!!!