Peel, halve and chop the onion. Clean and core the peppers, remove the white skins and cut into pieces that are not too large. Quarter the zucchini and cut into appropriately sized slices. Clean and chop the mushrooms (halve, quarter, sixth, depending on size). Halve the apple, remove the core, peel and cut into wedges. Drain the gherkins and cut into whole or half slices, depending on the size.
Heat a pan and a casserole, add a little oil and sauté half of the onion pieces and one crushed clove of garlic. Increase the temperature of the pan, add minced meat, season with salt, pepper and fry until crumbly. At the same time, briefly sear the paprika and zucchini in the casserole, deglaze with a dash of vinegar and add the chunky tomatoes (I usually use al Gusto arrabiata). Simmer for 5-10 minutes (depending on how snappy the vegetables should be), then add the minced meat, mushrooms and cucumber slices. Finally cut the apple wedges into slices again and add them. Let simmer for a short time, season to taste.
If the mass is still too firm / dry for you, it can be spicy with cucumber stock or ketchup or chili sauce or something similar.
Rice and a green salad go very well with this.
If you have a very large stew pan or are preparing the dish for fewer people, you don`t need a casserole. To do this, put the crumbly fried minced meat aside, prepare the vegetables in the stew pan and then add the minced meat again. Otherwise proceed as in the description above.
Two more comments on the recipe: Of course, the vegetables can be varied, for us the apple and cucumber pieces as well as the sweet and sour basic taste were the key. And I`ve been cooking the recipe with different vegetables in my family for several decades, although we named it ratatouille (not quite correctly) - hence the name in the title.
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