A few months back my friend Jen told me about a blog called Smitten Kitchen. While browsing SK’s recipes I found one for “Ratatouille’s Ratatouille”. She talks about how after watching the animated movie, she wanted to make the dish. I had the same sentiment after seeing the movie and was thrilled to see that her recipe was simple. (I had previously looked up a recipe in a Julia Child cookbook which wasn’t so approachable.) Here’s a link to Smitten Kitchen’s Ratatouille’s Ratatouille. I started with a variation on hers (we don’t like goat cheese in our house so I’ve tried a variety of others, we like a little more sauce in the bottom of the pan, being GF I put ours on brown rice for the grain and sometimes I leave out the red peppers because my daughter doesn’t like them and I’d rather not hear the complaints – other times we just have her pull hers out), but this is a dish that I make a little differently each time depending on what we’re in the mood for – it can be vegetarian (or not), gluten free (or not).

Ratatouille

1/2 Yellow or White Onion, diced

1 – 2 Cloves of garlic, minced

~18 oz crushed tomatoes (I buy the 24 oz can and don’t use quite all of it – this makes it saucier than SK’s version)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Medium Zucchini

1-2 Medium Yellow Squash

1 Small Eggplant or 1-2 Mini/Japanese/Italian/Holland Eggplant

1 Skinny Red Bell Pepper (Orange or Yellow would work too, so if you have a color scheme preference do what you wish)

Salt

Pepper

Dried Thyme

Parchment Paper

Extras:

Feta Cheese or Boursin Cheese

Salsiccia (cooked/grilled, sliced)

~1/4 lb Pancetta (diced and cooked in the sauce)

I start with one of my favorite baking dishes (Apilco Deep Oval Roaster), pour the crushed tomatoes in, add the diced onion, minced garlic, season with some salt and pepper and add about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Stir it a bit and spread it evenly in the bottom of your dish. (If I’m making my variation with the pancetta in the sauce, then I start the pancetta and oil in a nonstick fry pan, then add the onion. Once the pancetta and onion are mostly cooked I add the garlic just for a bit – if you burn the garlic it will taste bitter) and last the tomatoes. Then pour it in the baking dish.)

Next you’ll slice your zucchini, squash, eggplant and pepper either by hand or with a mandoline (watch your fingers!) so that they’re each 1/8th of an inch thick. The mandoline makes things go a lot faster and ensures that your vegetables are all consistent which makes the dish all the more beautiful at the end. Arrange your vegetables in the dish standing on end and in some sort of pattern (zucchini, squash, eggplant, pepper, for example) repeating all the way around the pan and across the middle. (Note about my image – we left out the peppers this time and I couldn’t find vegetables that were all the same size, you’ll see that I quartered my eggplant slices and in some places I have two zucchini slices laying diagonally across the bigger slice of squash.)

Once your pan is completely filled, you should season quite a bit with salt, pepper and some dried thyme. Then drizzle some olive oil across the top and cover with a piece of parchment cut to fit just inside the dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 – 65 minutes. It’s important that you let it cook all the way. The sauce will bubble up in the pan and the vegetables will be cooked through.

Once the ratatouille comes out of the oven, I serve it over brown rice. We usually add a sprinkle of cheese – this time it was Feta, though boursin is also delicious. We also at times add some sliced Salsiccia.