I am still blessed/cursed with quite a lot of fresh produce; most of it from my own garden. I've had some vegetables setting on my kitchen counter for a week, so I came up with a way to use them up before I had to toss them: Ratatouille!  The following is a combination of several recipes. Feel free to add to or delete items to your liking (like I did)!

Ratatouille (my version)

"some" olive oil (2-3 TBL)

a medium onion, roughly chopped

1-2 TBL minced garlic (I was out of fresh garlic)

one medium eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes

half of a large zucchini, cut into 1-inch cubes

two green peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces

2-3 cups stewed tomatoes (from my garden last year)

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 cup Kalamata olives

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (use more if you want it REALLY HOT)

garlic powder, to taste

a few dashes of parsley flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add the eggplant, zucchini and peppers; cook 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, olives, red pepper flakes, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

After eating two servings, I concluded that the Ratatouille needed red or yellow bell peppers instead of green peppers (which was all I had at the time) and lots of mushrooms! And more olives. I'm glad I didn't over-do it with the red pepper flakes, it was on the verge of being a little too hot. I'm also wondering what it would taste like over pasta of some sort, or maybe if canellini beans were added. Or shrimp.  This is how I cook, for the most part;try this, try that. I don't know the culinary history of Ratatouille, but maybe this is exactly how the recipe came about ! Try it and let me know how you "tweaked" the recipe.