Ratatouille

I've heard of ratatouille before... I don't know why I've never tried it, because I LOVE eggplant. Now that Disney has made Ratatouille famous, at least in our house, I thought I'd actually try to make it. I should have done this sooner ~ it is awesome!

8 strips of bacon (you can use more if you're a meat lover, but 8 slices is what I had in my fridge)
1 small onion, sliced
1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 large eggplant, sliced
2 medium zucchini, sliced
2 medium yellow squash, sliced
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
4 oz Parmesan cheese, shredded

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan and let cool enough to crumble. Drain grease out of pan, but leave renderings.

In bacon pan, cook onion in the olive oil just until the onion starts to become translucent. Add garlic, bacon, diced tomatoes, tomato paste & salt. Simmer for a few minutes.

Spread 1/2 sauce in a 9x13 baking dish. Layer with eggplant, zucchini, squash & cheese. Repeat layers. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 1 hour or until hot and bubbly.

*I'm fairly confident you could freeze this because everything in it freezes really well. You could also easily make it a vegetarian dish by substituting the bacon with portabella mushroom. Or just take out the bacon and use only the tomato sauce.