Ratatouille Wraps

These are my favourite wraps to eat for lunch or for a light dinner. They involve making a finely diced ratatouille mixture which is allowed to thicken more than usual to produce a spoonable consistency. This is then cooled before being used to fill a tortilla wrap which has first been spread with hummus and crisp lettuce and topped with a little scattering of grated cheese.

The ratatouille is not a traditional recipe as I have also included a little spice, not to add heat but just to bring a depth of flavour. The red onion and pepper provide a wonderful sweetness that works well with all the other flavours. All the different textures of the soft tortilla, creamy hummus and crisp lettuce work so well together. I think they taste best when ratatouille mix has been allowed to cool to room temperature, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use it when warm with a toasted tortilla to match. They may not look much but they taste delicious.

Ratatouille Wraps
Ingredients
1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small tin chopped tomatoes
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 red pepper
1 large carrot
1 large courgette
6 black olives
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
½-1 tsp curry powder

To Serve
Tortilla wraps
Lettuce
Grated cheese
Hummus

Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Finely dice the onion and crush the garlic and add to the pan. Sweat the onions and garlic gently for 5 minutes until they beginning to soften.
Dice the carrot and pepper into 1/2 cm dice, add to the pan and cook for 10 minutes before adding the roughly diced courgette.Pit and finely chop the olives and stir into the pan along with the tomatoes, herbs, sugar and spices and two tbsp water if your tomatoes are not very juicy. Allow the ratatouille to simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and the tomato sauce has become thick and sticky and all excess liquid has evaporated.
Leave to cool.
To make the wraps, spread the tortillas with a layer of hummus and cover with a layer of torn lettuce leaves. Spoon a quarter of the ratatouille mixture down the centre of the wrap. Grate over a little cheese of your choice.
Fold one end of the tortilla in over the filling and then roll into a log shape. Secure with a cocktail stick and serve with salad.
Makes 4 wraps


On another note I have now finished my year work placement and have just moved back home for the summer and am surrounded by boxes – how I’m supposed to fit a whole flats worth of stuff into my room I don’t know! I will really miss working, I loved being part of a team and treated like an equal. I’m not looking forward to returning to the stigma of ‘a student’ for my final year of uni. Thanks to everyone who helped and supported me throughout my last year, at times it was a challenge, but I can’t believe its now over.