Baked Autumn Vegetables

March 26, 2002

Daylight saving has ended and we are headlong into autumn. This is a wonderful time of the year to buy all that Mediterranean-style produce - peppers, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes. When these vegetable have been grown outside and have ripened in the sun, they have so much more taste.

My market has been selling peppers very cheaply lately and of course I have succumbed to buying large bags of mixed peppers - and then remembering I am cooking for one about 75 percent of the time.

Son Ben and his flatmates have benefited from my overpurchasing and he generally heads home from a visit to Mum with a bag of produce.

Ratatouille used to be a favourite dish for this time of the year and any leftovers were excellent the next day for lunch. However, lately I have taken to giving vegetables a short, sharp shock in a very hot oven.

Today's recipe is one of those very useful ones for any time of the day. It can be served alone as a vegetarian or luncheon dish, or it can accompany pan-fried salmon or firm white fish, a fillet steak or a grilled chicken breast.

It's simplicity itself to put together and makes a nice mix of colours and textures. You can also add vegetables such as beans or broccoli, but it pays to blanch them in boiling water for a couple of minutes first (or microwave them).

Baked autumn vegetables

1 each red, green, yellow and orange peppers
3 medium red onions, roots trimmed, quartered lengthwise
3 zucchini, topped, tailed and sliced thickly diagonally
200g button mushrooms (brown and white) quartered
1 medium eggplant cut into 1cm chunks
10 cloves garlic, peeled
4 or more tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
6 baby leeks, sliced diagonally

Place all the vegetables in a large roasting pan and sprinkle with some olive oil (I used basil-infused oil) and the juice of one lemon. Add some fresh herbs, chopped - basil, tarragon, thyme, marjoram, parsley or whatever you have available. Add salt and freshly ground pepper.

Pre-heat the oven to 210C. Cook the vegetables, shaking the pan once or twice, for 12 minutes. Sprinkle with a little balsamic vinegar and some fresh basil and serve immediately.

This dish is nice with some toasted ciabatta bread to mop up the juices.