Ratatouille

I love ratatouille, but I've always found the recently popular "movie-style" layered ratatouille a little (or a lot) sloppy to eat, and extremely tedious to make. So we've mixed it up and found a way to make ratatouille that is easier and tastes better (it's far less messy and awkward to eat, and the flavors blend SO much better!). Beautiful is useless in food if it makes it so you can't make or eat it well. 

Here's the recipe. Easy and delicious.

Ratatouille

1/4-1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed OR 1/4 tsp garlic powder

dash red pepper flakes

1 tsp italian seasoning, divided
1 can tomato sauce
2-3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium eggplant
4 small or 2 medium zucchini (grocery store definitions, not garden definitions. A small zucchini would be less than 7 inches long and no bigger than 1 1/2 inch diameter)
2 yellow squash
1-2 red, orange, or yellow pepper
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper
parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pour tomato sauce into 9x13 pan. Stir in onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Dice all the veggies into 3/4 or 1/2 inch cubes. Toss all together with 1-2 tbsp olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour into pan with tomato sauce. Even it out but don't stir. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tsp italian seasoning. Cover and bake 45-50 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with fresh chopped basil and parmesan (go very light on the parmesan, though). Stir to distribute sauce and serve hot.