Baked summer vegetables

Türlü

I love this Turkish ratatouille and I make variations of it on a regular basis. It always tastes better the next day and is delicious hot or cold.

Quantity	Ingredient
2	large aubergines, thinly sliced
1	large onion, peeled and thinly sliced
4	garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2	large potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
4	large tomatoes, roughly chopped
4	green peppers, deseeded and sliced
6	courgettes, trimmed and sliced
1 tablespoon	dried oregano
1 tablespoon	dried mint
3 tablespoons	fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, including stems
3 tablespoons	concentrated tomato puree
6 tablespoons	extra virgin olive oil
	sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper

Quantity	Ingredient
30 x 30cm	baking dish

Soak the aubergines in a bowl of salted cold water for 30 minutes to remove their bitterness. Drain them in a colander and place them in a large bowl.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Add the onion, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, oregano, mint and parsley to the bowl of aubergines. Season generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Put the tomato purée in a measuring jug, add 300ml boiling water and mix well. Pour this over the vegetables in the bowl, add the olive oil and mix everything well.
Transfer the mixture to the baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for 1½ hours or until the top has browned and the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. (Cover the dish with foil if it looks like the vegetables are burning but be sure to remove the foil again 30 minutes before the end.) Leave to cool before serving warm or cold with feta and dried oregano sprinkled over the top, and drizzled with olive oil.

Tags:: Istanbul; Turkey; Turkish food; Middle Eastern; Andy Harris; David Loftus