Sheet-Pan Ratatouille

I suppose I should begin with a series of confessions: I just returned from a vacation that featured no shortage of meat; I didn't even TRY to achieve Vegan Vednesday while on the road; I served tonight's vegetarian "Sheet-Pan Ratatouille With Goat Cheese and Olives" (NYT Cooking; subscription required) with non-vegetarian salmon; and I modified the recipe so much that you maybe can't take my assessment as a true reflection of the recipe anyway.

And yet I blog on, undaunted.

I have tried to like eggplant, over the years, and I have failed (this is disappointing to me because eggplant can be very beautiful). So I left that out of my ratatouille, and I also did not adhere at all to the measurements of any of the ingredients, because it seemed like it would make a lot more than I needed. So, for example, I used about a pound of zucchini, one bell pepper, four cloves of garlic, etc.

Regarding the olives: "torn into pieces"? What are we, animals? I chopped them with a knife, thank you very much.

Everything cooked very quickly, so I cut down all the roasting times. For example, the first roasting period only took 23 minutes, not 40.

On top of all that haphazardness, I screwed something up, as I always do. I added the tomatoes to the wrong sheet pan - to the zucchini pan, rather than the pepper pan. As a result, the juice from the tomatoes prevented the zucchini from sufficiently caramelizing.

Despite all my bastardizations of the recipe, the final product featured good texture and flavor. The only problem was that the saltiness of the feta and olives were excessive. So I'd recommend not adding any actual salt.

I realize that I've made it sound like there's no reason to bother with this recipe, but that's not true. If you don't salt it, and keep an eye on doneness, and FOR PETE'S SAKE DON'T SCREW IT UP JENNIE, then this has the potential to be a very good dish, and it's not difficult.

Regarding my un-vegetarian vacation, there is a bright spot: I finally got to try Burger King's Impossible Whopper. I had tried my first Impossible Burger at an upscale Manhattan restaurant some time ago, and was very impressed, and feel the same way about the Burger King version. It has almost certainly been years since I ate at Burger King, but I can honestly say I'm now looking forward to eating there again. And the Impossible Whopper also makes me feel good about the potential for more Americans to eat less meat and therefore reduce their environmental impact, intentionally or not.

Here I am in Burger King...BURGER KING!! Who knew?!