Ratatouille with Sausage and Tomato Cream Sauce
This is a great dish that looks very fancy but is actually quite easy to make. A great way to impress your guests or to bring to the potluck and show off your skills!
1/2 Eggplant, small, whole
1 Zucchini, medium
1 Summer squash, medium
3 Roma tomatoes, medium
8 Brussels sprouts
1 Red onion, small
5 Garlic cloves
10 Asparagus stalks
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 lb Sweet Italian sausage
1/4 c White wine
15 oz Tomato sauce
1/2 c Basil, fresh
2 tbsp Oregano, fresh
1 tsp Red pepper flakes
1 c Half and half
3/4 c Mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Black pepper, ground
Preheat oven to 350 F
Clean and trim ends of eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, Roma tomato and Brussels sprouts. Fit seven-cup food processor with slicing blade and attach lid and secure in place. Turn unit on high and feed eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, Roma tomatoes and Brussels sprouts into feed tube and use food pusher to slice all vegetables. Keep Brussels sprouts separate from the other vegetables and set aside.
Next, fit seven-cup food processor with shredding blade and shred mozzarella cheese on low and set aside.
Heat a sauté pan and add sausage, cook thoroughly and remove from pan.
Dice onion and mince garlic. Cut off and dice the tops and first two inches of asparagus. Add olive oil to 8" sauté pan. Next, add diced red onion, asparagus, minced garlic and Brussels sprouts into pan and cook on medium-high heat until vegetables are tender, about five to seven minutes. Add sausage to vegetables and add wine to deglaze the pan. Chop basil and oregano. Next, add tomato sauce, cream, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes and cook down until most of the liquid has reduced to half, about 15 minutes.
To assemble, put Italian sausage mixture in bottom of a heavy round casserole dish. Starting from the outside layer eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and tomatoes in a circular pattern over sausage mixture. Finally, cover vegetables with cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
