Sausage Ratatouille

One of the tricks of making ratatouille is cutting the vegetables into even sized pieces, so that everything cooks evenly. This is hard to do as vegetables don't seem to grow in nice even sizes. If you notice in the pictures I was able to get zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant the same size but when it came to tomatoes I had to get large ones or small ones. I went with the smaller Roma tomatoes and cut them into thicker slices and separated them into a layer of their own when I layered the vegetable slices.  This worked better than I expected as the tomatoes gave off a lot of juice as they cooked adding additional flavor.
Sausage Ratatouille
2 or 3 Japanese eggplants 4 to 6 inches or 1 standard eggplant 8 to 10 inches, cut into thin coins
1 yellow squash 8 to 10 inches, cut into thin coins
1 zucchini 8 to 10 inches, cut into thin coins
12 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
Olive Oil
salt & pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
2 Italian sausages, hot or sweet, cases removed, I used turkey sausage
1/2 small onion, chopped finely
1/4 red pepper, chopped finely
1/4 yellow pepper, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

After cutting the eggplant, zucchini, squash and tomatoes put them in a bowl drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and oregano. Arrange them in a shallow baking dish, I had 2 circles of tomato and 2 of eggplant, zucchini and squash but the sausage covers the smaller circles. Cook until vegetables take on color, about 30 to 40 minutes.

While vegetables are baking add sausage to sauté pan and cook until meat starts to brown. Add the onion, peppers and garlic. cook until meat is browned and onions and peppers are soft.

When baked vegetables are done top with sausage mixture. and serve.

Bistecca alla Pizzaiola

Steak prepared in the pizza style. This was a clean the refrigerator out, because we have to many leftovers and it is time to start baking for Christmas, dinner. It was pretty good but I had to much sauce and the pieces of steak disappear in the photos.

Bistecca alla Pizzaiola

For Steak:
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
8 oz steak, I used London Broil, cut into very thin pieces (cut while still a little frozen to get the thinnest pieces)

For Sauce:
2 tsp olive oil
2 tbs onion, diced
1/2 pepper, diced (I had mini peppers so I used 1 red, 1 yellow and 1 orange)
4 oz mushrooms, sliced thin
1 14oz can of crushed tomatoes

Heat pan over medium high heat. Add the olive oil when pan is hot, then add garlic to pan. After about 30 seconds add the steak slices. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove steak and set aside, throw away garlic.

Add additional olive oil to pan. when oil gets hot add onions and cook for a minute or 2. Then peppers and mushrooms cook until mushrooms start to brown. Add the tomatoes and turn heat down to medium. Put the steak slices back in pan. Cook until steak is warmed through.

I served this over a bed of polenta.