We used to watch animation movies when my kids were your younger. My mom and I still enjoy watching them. My favorite has always been Ratatouille. So why not share my recipe, hope you will try this colorful dish. Not as difficult or time consuming it might seem, just relax and start. Don’t forget that even the meaning of “ratatouille” is thrown stew and you can be rather flexible when preparing. You can even serve it cold or warm, as a main or a side.
My Ratatouille is not as perfect as Remy the rat’s and lucky I am not going to be inspected by a gurme. Anyway here are my tips.
What do you serve ratatouille with?
As this is a purely vegetable dish a rice, bulgur, pasta or quinoa would be good choice if serving ratatouille as a main dish.
If serving ratatouille as a side dish, it can accompany main dishes such as fish, meat, meat balls and chicken. Last time I served it with Bulgur Pilaf.
What are the vegetable options for a tasty ratatouilles?
Generally ratatouille is prepared with at least 3 layers of thin-sliced vegetables. Choices are zucchini, eggplants, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots. You are free to add all or whatever is available. If you are lucky and find similar sized vegetables, great. If not adjust or cut accordingly.
I had a large eggplant so for each eggplant slice I used 2 zucchini slices. Just find your way around to achieve a nice presentation. I used carrots and potatoes which generally need to cook more, so I placed the tomato slices between these to provide them the moisture to cook easier. Some pieces were smaller, some larger, but you can always make the top part look perfect.
Do you peel eggplant for ratatouille?
Yes, but not completely, peel the eggplants in stripes. Do not totally peel or they might become soggy. After peeling brine for 15 minutes in salty water to cover. Then squeeze excess water and then slice.
I suggest you use a mandoline for slicing the vegetables. I have done so for the potato, carrot and the zucchini. However mandoline did not work well with the eggplant and the tomatoes.
Enough with the details. Let me move on to the recipe:
Easy Ratatouille Recipe
Equipment
- Mandoline (not a must)
Ingredients
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons light olive oil
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 yellow pepper
- 1 red pepper
- 4 tomatoes (or 200 gram canned tomatoes)
- ½ teaspoon salt to taste
- ⅔ teaspoon pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 5-6 fresh basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
Vegetables
- 1 eggplant
- 1 zucchini
- 1 carrot
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 potato
Seasoning
- 5-6 leaves fresh basil chopped
- 5-6 sprigs parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ salt
- ¼ pepper
Instructions
Sauce
- Start with preparing the sauce.
- Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Chop the onion and add to the pan and sauté until translucent.
- Then add the minced garlic and the de-seeded and diced peppers. Sauté for another 10 minutes.
- Add grated tomatoes. You may you canned tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes.
- Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Mix to make sure everything is well blended.
- When peppers are cooked remove from heat and ad chopped basil.
Vegetables
- Make sure the slices are equal and thin. About 1 mm thickness would work the best.
- Cut off the stem and peel the eggplant in stripes. Place in a bowl of salty water and leave for at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile slice a zucchini, a carrot and the tomatoes
- Slice the potato last as it might get dark while waiting.
- Squeeze the eggplant to get rid of the excess water and slice.
Combining and Baking
- Pour the sauce into your baking dish, mix and make flat and smooth in the bottom of the dish.
- Then start placing the vegetables side by side on to the sauce. Try to maintain the same sequence of vegetables throught the dish. Continue until the dish is full.
- Mix the seasoning ingredients in a small bowl and pour the contents over the vegetables.
- Cover the top of the baking dish first with an oven paper cut to the size and then cover with a foil.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 190° Celsius for about 1 hour. Then remove the foil and the oven paper. Cook for another half an hour.
- Check the carrots with a knife to test if they are cooked.
- Remove from the oven, let rest for 5 minutes and serve.
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