Sunday Dinner: Ratatouille

In our CSA box (from http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php ) this week, we got some eggplant (along with a whole bunch of other yummy stuff).  Instead of doing my usual stir fry with the eggplant, I decided to make ratatouille.  My first thought, knowing this is a French dish, was to reach for the Julia Child cookbook.  But since her recipe starts out with “A really good ratatouille is not one of the quicker dishes to make . . .” I decided to search my plethora of other cookbooks for a less complicated recipe.  I finally found one in my “The Taste of Home Cookbook” that sounded perfect for this particular Sunday evening.  Aaron is out of town this weekend, and I had plans to go hiking this morning with a friend, so I knew I didn’t want something too labor intensive.

This recipe is actually really easy as far as prep work.  You cook bacon and onions together (I used turkey bacon because that’s what I had on hand), and then add a can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, salt and some seasonings.  Then you layer half of the sauce followed by half the eggplant, zucchini, green pepper and cheese in a baking dish and repeat the layer one more time.  Then you pop it in the oven for about 50 minutes and voila!

Dinner in one dish!

Ok, now onto the really fun part: the costs.  It aggravates me to no end when people attempt to claim that it is cheaper (and/or healthier) to eat out than to cook for yourself.  I seriously had an argument with a friend about this.  Take a look at my numbers for this meal and tell me who wins:

Total cost:

4 turkey bacon strips	$0.50
1 cup onion	$2.00
1 can tomato paste	$0.69
1 can diced tomatoes	$0.88
1 large garlic clove	$0.05
1 large eggplant	$2.00
2 large zucchini	$1.88
1 large green pepper	$1.00
6 oz Monterey Jack	$2.50
	$11.50

$11.50 total, yielding a supposed 8 servings = $1.50 per person (ok, ok, with Aaron in the house, that is probably more like 6 servings, so a little under $2 per person).  Full disclosure: I had to fudge the numbers for the eggplant and onion a little bc they both came in my CSA box, and I pay a flat fee per box, not per vegetable.  But it’s great!  I pay $15 for half a box every other week (my friend and I each split a $30 box).  This week we got eggplants, apples, onions, cauliflower, lettuce, tomatoes and figs!