My Vegetable Blog

Making bruschetta for a picnic almost 24 hours in advance presents an interesting dilemma – what do you do about the bread? My solution – Melba toast. I made this Ratatouille Bruschetta for a concert in the park last night, but I had to make it all the night before, and take it with me to work.

I thought about grilling some bread slices and packing them up in a Ziplock bag, but I was afraid they would either get soggy or stale. I decided to take my chances and try to find something on my way to the concert. I was hoping to find a bag of pre-sliced baguette pieces (I've seen them before at Whole Foods), but didn't have any luck there.

In lieu of bread, the Melba toast held up well to the bruschetta and other toppings (goat cheese with orange preserves and some fabulous hummus from Eatzi's).

The bruschetta was inspired by, obviously, ratatouille. Not Ratatouille the movie, but the actual dish, or rather, all the dishes that were inspired by the movie that I've been drooling over lately. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I hope to check it out this weekend. In the mean time, I'll keep snacking on my bruschetta.

Here's the recipe:

• 1 large tomato
• 1 medium-sized eggplant
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 red onion
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped green olives
• grilled bread slices (or Melba toast)
• goat cheese (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 450 and bring a pot of water to boil. Cut an X in the bottom of the tomato and blanch it for about 1 minute in the boiling water. When it has cooled slightly, remove the skin and slice.

Cut eggplant, zucchini, squash and onion into quarter-inch slices. Toss all vegetables in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper, and arrange on baking sheets.

Place an oven rack on the top setting, and roast vegetables until they begin to brown - about 30-40 minutes. Keep an eye on them to prevent burning. Once vegetables have cooled slightly, chop into small pieces and mix together with another tablespoon or two of olive oil. Mix in chopped olives.

Makes about 2 cups.

Serve chilled or at room temperature. If you prefer, spread goat cheese on bread before topping with bruschetta mixture.

Enjoy.