I love it when a meal comes together right out of our veggie box. You can almost hear the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers above crying out: Ratatouille!

In my case, I like to roast slices of eggplant and peppers in the oven, drizzled with olive oil, until they’re soft and brown. After letting them cool, I chop’em up and throw them into a pot to simmer with tomatoes (also chopped), herbes de Provence (or whatever fresh herbs I have on hand), salt, and a copious glug-glug-glug of olive oil. Cook until it’s done.

Not pictured in the photo from our French barbecue was a gratin de courgettes (zucchini gratin) made by Stephanie’s mom, which I believe served as the only vegetable that night. It was so delicious that I felt compelled to ask Chris what she had put in it. « Just steamed zucchini, potato puree (from flakes!), milk, butter, and Gruyère on top. C’est tout », she said.

The memory stuck with me, and I made a mental note to attempt it myself after we got back from France. That sometime was last Monday, after returning from a visit to Petaluma with a plump zucchini from a friend’s garden. Along with some red potatoes that I’d been preserving in the fridge for far too long, and some pattypan squash from our veggie box two weeks prior, I had everything I needed, and set to peeling and steaming the lot. Once the veggies were suitably limp, I mashed them together with some butter only to discover I had made soup, not puree. No need for milk. I put the mixture into a pot to simmer in the hope that it might thicken.

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In short: the whole barnyard. Pictured above, there’s the ever popular chipolata (pork sausage) and merguez (spicy lamb sausage), plus dinde (turkey), and médaillons de porc au lard (bacon-wrapped pork loin). Not pictured, but grilled later that night were skewers of boeuf (beef), agneau (lamb), and some very yummy magret de canard (duck breast). Merci Chef Michel!

This is Parmigiano-Reggiano as it should look:

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