Ratatouille & Pork Chops

Ratatouille is a traditional French dish that is simply mixed vegetables baked in a casserole dish.  There are hundreds of ways to prepare this savory dish and most of the recipes you’ll find are already Paleo, or nearly so.  We made ours with some squashes that are in season and available at our farmer’s market.  For the pork chops we wanted to stay with the French theme and marinated our Meat Shop AZ chops in some home-made Herbes de Provence and grass-fed butter.

Ingredients for 6 generous servings of Ratatouille (the two of us ate 4 of these servings) 🙂 

• 1 Large Sweet Onion, thinly sliced
• 2 Red Bell Peppers, chopped into 1/4 inch strips
• 2 Green Bell Peppers, chopped into 1/4 inch strips
• 2 Anaheim Peppers, chopped into 1/4 inch strips
• 2 Yellow Chile  Peppers, chopped into 1/4 inch strips
• 1 Acorn Squash, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1 Carnival Squash, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 3 Average size Eggplants, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 2 tsp Fresh Thyme
• 2 tbsp Fresh Basil
• 2 Bay leaves
• 8 Garlic Cloves
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), or pastured butter
• 2 Large Tomatoes, diced into 1/4 inch pieces, used as garnish
• 4 small tomatillos, diced into 1/4 inch  pieces, used as garnish

Pork Chops & Marinade

• 1.5 Tbsp grass-fed butter
• 1 tsp Fresh Thyme
• 1 tsp Fresh Rosemary
• 1/2 tsp Dried Basil
• 2 large Pork Chops from The Meat Shop AZ (2 Lbs.)

Here’s how: 

1. Marinate the pork chops for at least 2 hours by placing all marinade ingredients in a large zip-freezer bag and into a warm water bath.  This will allow the butter to melt and coat the chops.
2. Coat the bottom of a large casserole with EVOO, herbs, salt, pepper, garlic and onions.  Add all other ingredients on top making sure they are evenly distributed.  Do not add tomatoes or tomatillos yet, this will be the last step for the Ratatouille.
3. Add the remainder of the EVOO and some additional salt and pepper to top of casserole.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees on convection setting and cook for at least 60 minutes.  Your oven may cook faster or slower, so check a few times to make sure all veggies are cooked through.  It’s ok to mix veggies to avoid anything burning on top.
5. Remove casserole from oven and add tomatoes and tomatillos and mix into casserole.  Let everything cool while you focus on your pork chops.
6. Grill pork chops to desired temperature.  We cook our 1 1/2 inch chops in a cast iron grill pan on high heat for 2 1/2 minutes per quarter or 10 minutes total.
7. Serve and enjoy!