Cafe Lula

If you looked at all the cookbooks I have, you’d probably come to the conclusion that Gordon Ramsay is my favourite chef. I have six of his cookbooks, which is the most I have of any other cookery book author. But I’ve never made anything from any of them! Eep.

Until today! I finally got round to making a Gordon Ramsay recipe: baked eggs with ratatouille. And it was amazing. It also helped me with two of the weekly goals I introduced when I started the blog: at least one new recipe from a cookbook per week, and one vegetarian meal per week.

This is great comfort food. Really easy to make and yummy with some good french bread. Plus, “they” reckon it’s good for you to eat at least one vegetarian meal a week, so it’s a healthy choice as well! I should mention that I have a tendency to replace chopped tomatoes in recipes with passata, and this is what I’ve done here, as well as increasing the amount used (more sauce is always nice!).

Baked eggs with ratatouille

Adapted from Healthy Appetite by Gordon Ramsay

Serves 2

Ingredients:

olive oil, for frying

2 echalion shallots, sliced into rings 1cm thick

1/2 aubergine, sliced into 1.5cm pieces

1 red pepper, sliced into 1.5cm pieces

1 small courgette, sliced into 1.5cm pieces

salt and black pepper

1 garlic clove

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp hot paprika

300g/10.5 oz passata

2 large eggs

Heat the oven to 190C. In a wok, heat the olive oil over a high heat, then add the shallots and a little seasoning. Saute for 2 minutes, then add the aubergine and pepper, crush in the garlic and fry for another minute. Add the courgette and saute for another 2 minutes.

Add the cumin, paprika and passata and give it a good stir. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender, stirring every so often.

In the original recipe, the ratatouille is divided between two individual shallow ovenproof dishes. I used one large ovenproof dish. Either way, make one indentation per egg in the ratatouille with a spoon and then crack an egg into each one.

Bake for 8-12 minutes until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny in the middle. Serve immediately with some french bread.