Oven – roasted Ratatouille with fusilli

Serves: 33 x 20 cm shallow roasting tray
PREP time: 15 minutes+ 70 minutes baking time
Difficulty: medium

Ingredients:

1 eggplant (aubergine)
2 zucchini (courgettes)
2 celery sticks
3 fresh tomatoes
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
250 grams cooked fussili pasta
650 ml tomato passata
3 tbsp brown sugar or xylitol
2 tsp marjoram
2 tsp thyme
4 tbsp basil
Salt
Black pepper
Thyme
Olive oil

Step by step:

1. Clean all the vegetables. Cut eggplant, zucchini and celery into thin slices. Cut peppers into thin slices and then into 4 – 5 smaller pieces. Cut onion into small cubes.
2. To make the tomato sauce mix tomato passata with 2 tbsp brown sugar or xylitol, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp basil.
3. Slightly oil the roasting tray and cover it with one layer of sliced eggplant.Season it with all the spices. Top it with 1/3 amount of green & red paprika, celery and fussili pasta, and half amount of cut onion. Drizzle it with olive oil and tomato sauce, season it again. Repeat it but this time with zucchini instead of egg plant. The third layer will be done with a mix of remaining egg plant, zucchini, and remaining veggies and pasta, covered with remaining tomato sauce and topped with slices of tomatoes.  Season the tomatoes with basil.
   Important: Season each layer of vegetables and also the sauce as you go.  Grab pinch of each spice and sprinkle.
4. Cover the rosting tray with aluminium foil and bake it for 30 minutes in preaheatd oven to 200°C , then increase the temp. to 220°C and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover it and bake for 10 minutes allowing the tomatoes to roast and evaporate some of the liquid.