This French-inspired ratatouille recipe is a traditional summer season dish with sliced eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes baked over a brilliant, tangy stewed tomato sauce.
Veggie lovers, ratatouille has your identify throughout it. And should you’re sitting with an abundance of backyard greens, undoubtedly try my roasted eggplant stacks and caponata recipe, too.
Get in, we’re going to the South of France! OK, probably not (a woman can dream), however one chew of this French-inspired ratatouille recipe and I’m as shut as I’ll get to the Riviera with out leaving the kitchen. Ratatouille, pronounced “ra-tuh-too-ee”, is a traditional stew of summer season backyard greens, together with sliced eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes. This layered, spiraled ratatouille is the right centerpiece for a summer season meal, and it’s surprisingly easy to make. You’ll see.
Causes to Love This Ratatouille Recipe
- Eat along with your eyes. Not solely is that this do-it-yourself ratatouille crammed with recent summer season veggies, but it surely seems wonderful on a dinner desk, too. Between the number of colours and the spiral presentation, if there was ever a vegetarian dish for a special day, that is it.
- Straightforward to make. The longest step is slicing all these scrumptious veggies. Afterward, it’s all about embracing your inside “artiste” to rearrange the colourful slices over a mattress of juicy, sautéed tomatoes.
- Versatile. Ratatouille works nice as a foremost or a aspect. Serve it as-is with garlic bread or crostini and a inexperienced salad, or pair it along with your favourite summer season mains, like grilled pork tenderloin or French bouillabaisse.
What You’ll Want
Listed under are all the easy and recent elements that go into this ratatouille recipe to make one thing severely scrumptious. I’ve additionally added notes and simple swaps that will help you make it your individual! Scroll all the way down to the printable recipe card for full particulars and directions, adopted by a step-by-step with photographs displaying how straightforward it’s to make.
- Onion and Carrot – The bottom of the tomato sauce begins with chopped onion and shredded carrot, sautéed with olive oil. You should utilize yellow onion or one other form, like shallot.
- Garlic – Please use freshly minced garlic! You’ll style the distinction.
- Canned Tomatoes – You’ll want a can of chopped or diced tomatoes for the sauce. Select your favourite model. I all the time search for San Marzano tomatoes as they’re sweeter.
- Herbs – Dried basil and thyme. You may substitute recent variations should you’d like; you’ll want about 3x the quantity of recent herbs to dried.
- Zucchini – Select medium-sized zucchini which might be agency and vibrant inexperienced.
- Eggplant – Attempt to discover greens which might be the same width (I exploit medium-sized eggplant right here as effectively). The eggplant ought to have agency, deep purple pores and skin with none smooth spots or blemishes.
- Recent Tomatoes – I like to recommend Roma tomatoes since they’re narrower than different varieties, which makes them the right width as soon as sliced.
Ideas and Variations
- Select greens which might be related in dimension. Particularly in the case of width. This manner, if you slice and stack them, the sides will line up evenly.
- A observe about slicing: A mandolin slicer is the simplest to make use of, but it surely’s not all the time the most effective for slicing eggplant. In the event you discover that your mandolin is tearing the eggplant (or in any other case struggling to make clear slices), change to a pointy knife as a substitute.
- Add extra colour. Typically, I’ll swap one of many zucchini for yellow squash for a pop of colour.
- For simple stacking, layer the veggies in your hand, alternating the tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant, after which gently prepare the stack contained in the baking dish. Stacking the layers can take a little bit of follow, and it’s wonderful in case your ratatouille doesn’t look good. It’ll nonetheless style scrumptious!
Storage and Reheating
- Refrigerate. Retailer the ratatouille coated hermetic within the fridge for as much as 3 days. The greens are likely to launch water over time, so take pleasure in your leftovers sooner fairly than later. Typically, I’ll use leftover ratatouille because the filling for a veggie omelette.
- Reheat. Heat up leftovers within the oven beneath foil or uncovered in a microwave-safe dish.
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Prep. Preheat your oven to 375ºF.
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Sauté. Warmth olive oil in a big skillet. Add onion and carrot, and prepare dinner, stirring, for five minutes. Add garlic and prepare dinner for 20 seconds or till aromatic.
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Make the tomato base. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, and thyme. Season the tomato base with salt and pepper to style. Simmer for 10 minutes or till the sauce is thickened. Switch the tomato combination right into a 9-inch spherical baking dish. Put aside.
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Slice the greens. Trim the ends with a knife, after which slice the zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes with a mandolin slicer or a knife to 1/8-inch-thick slices.
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Prepare the veggies. Prepare the slices of zucchini, eggplant, and Roma tomatoes on prime of the tomato sauce in a concentric circle, alternating and overlapping the greens. Drizzle the olive oil over the greens and season them with salt and pepper to style.
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Bake. Cowl the dish with aluminum foil and bake the greens for 45 minutes. Take away the foil and proceed to bake for 10 minutes or till the greens are tender.
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End and serve. Take away the ratatouille from the oven and let it relaxation for five minutes earlier than serving.
- Slicing the veggies. Though the mandolin slicer is the simplest to make use of, a few of them don’t slice eggplant effectively. Swap to a pointy knife if the slicer is tearing the pores and skin of the eggplant. Additionally, ensure you are utilizing greens of the identical width.
- Vegetable choices. You may swap one zucchini with a summer season squash for extra colour.
- Stacking. For simple stacking, stack the veggies in your hand, alternating layers, after which place the stack into the baking dish.
Serving: 1.25cups | Energy: 158kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 3g | Fats: 10g | Saturated Fats: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fats: 1g | Monounsaturated Fats: 7g | Sodium: 112mg | Potassium: 769mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 2204IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 2mg
Dietary information is an estimate and supplied as courtesy. Values might range in line with the elements and instruments used. Please use your most popular dietary calculator for extra detailed information.
Methods to Make Ratatouille
Who else remembers Remy the rat from the 2007 Disney film Ratatouille? Fortunately, you don’t want a bit rodent helper in your chef’s hat to make a gorgeous, layered ratatouille just like the one pictured. Simply observe these steps:
- Make the tomato base. Begin by sautéeing the onion and shredded carrot in a big skillet with olive oil. After 5 minutes, add the garlic, adopted by canned tomatoes, basil, and thyme. Let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes.
- Slice the greens. In the meantime, trim the stems from the zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes utilizing a pointy knife. Subsequent, utilizing the identical knife or a mandolin, slice the veggies to create ⅛” thick rounds.
- Prepare the veggies. Unfold the tomato base into the underside of a spherical baking dish. Then, prepare the veggie slices in a concentric circle on prime of the sauce. Alternate the zucchini, tomatoes, and eggplant, beginning on the periphery and dealing inward. I discover it’s best to layer the slices in my hand earlier than putting them into the dish.
- Prep for the oven. When you’ve assembled the ratatouille, drizzle the entire thing with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cowl the baking dish with foil.
- Bake. Bake at 375ºF for 45 minutes, then take away the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Let the ratatouille relaxation on the counter for five minutes, then serve.
