This crisped pork ratatouille is super satisfying and delicious!

This crisped pork ratatouille dish is a perfect example of posh nosh that doesn’t need to carry a stupid price tag! You can often pay through the nose for a decent ratatouille dish from a fancy restaurant but why pay those prices when you can make it yourself for a really affordable price?

Ratatouille is a delicious French Provençal recipe that originated from Nice and not only is full of colour and vitamins but also is very high up on the taste stakes! We love a good ratatouille in our house and one of us often cooks it for the whole family. Bonus is the kids don’t realise just how deliciously healthy it is.

If your new to cooking with aubergine’s and courgettes, then this is great and simple dish to get you started. Definitely get cooking with these ingredients as soon as you can – they taste great and can be used in pretty much any meal!

You can even blend any left overs and pop them into a soup, gravy or even mixed with thick tomato paste for a sneaky vegetable packed pizza topping!

For this crisped pork ratatouille recipe, you will need…..

1 nice big fat aubergine cut into chunks

2 deseeded and diced peppers

1 diced Red onion

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 diced courgette

8 fresh basil leaves

3 finely chopped garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp Balsamic vinegar

1 tsp cumin

4 Pork chops

Fresh Rocket to garnish

Ok, give me 2 minutes to bang on about Aubergines ! These are not only a versatile vegetables that are a great source of immune protecting vitamin C, but are often found on the bargain shelf as many people ( still !) don’t have a Scooby what to do with them.

These purple beauties are great in a stew, curry or even a pasta dish, and will not only bulk a dish out but give it a fab bit of texture !  Rant over soz! If I can get more people eating aubergine, I can’t wait – it really needs so much more attention!

Ok, so lets make this dish simple and just put everything into a large pan, bring it up to the boil and then let it gently simmer under a lid for about 30 minutes. To thicken and reduce the sauce, remove the lid and let it bubble away for a further 15 minutes.

I always recommend leaving the Pork out of the fridge for about an hour before you start to cook it, as this will bring it up to room temperature, massage some olive oil and seasoning into the meat to flavour and tenderise it. 

Heat up a pan or even better a griddle pan and cook the chops about 4 minutes each side, until it is nice and well browned off. Then with some tongs or a fork, hold it so that the strip of fat is directly onto the pan and cook for a minute or two so that the strip really crisps up.

So ideally, you want to meat to get really soft and tenderise so I would highly recommend leaving it for around 5 minutes when you remove it from the pan.

Cut into strips and put these onto a serving plate. Cover with your ratatouille and then top with some rocket that has been tossed in a small amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy X

Let me know what you think of this Crisped Pork Ratatouille and if you are keen to try your hand at more recipes with aubergine, give this delicious Lamb Stuffed Aubergine Recipe a try. It really needs to be seen to be believed – yum!