Garden Mix

Ingredients

• 1 large zucchini cubed
• 1 medium to large eggplant cubed *
• 18 Italian tomatoes (plum) - use less if you use a can of tomato sauce
• 1 large onion - sliced
• 5 garlic cloves - reduce the number of cloves if you don’t love garlic
• 2 celery stalks chopped
• 2 carrots chopped - can be replaced with green peppers
• 1 Italian hot pepper - optional but it adds PUNCH
• 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Italian herbs **

Instructions

1. 1
   Coat large Dutch oven or saucepan bottom with olive oil. (Remember olive oil heats quicker than vegetable oil and could burn onions.)
2. 2
   Add onion, zucchini and eggplant. (These vegetables take longer to cook; therefore, you need to add them early.)
3. 3
   As eggplant begins to brown, add garlic. When eggplant is brown, add tomatoes, celery, carrots, Italian hot pepper, and whatever else you like.
4. 4
   Bring to a boil for 1 minute, reduce to simmer for 20 minutes to 1 hour. The longer this cooks, the thicker it gets.
5. 5
   Serve in a bowl accompanied by Italian bread. NOTE: you may add Italian sausage also.