Ratatouille is a simple dish of layered tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant. With a touch of tomato sauce and a drizzle of oil, this dish is as delicious as it is beautiful!

Serve these roasted vegetables as a side dish or a meatless main dish with crusty bread.

pan of Ratatouille with basil as garnish

Holly’s Recipe Highlights

Ratatouille (rat-a-too-ee) comes from Nice, France, and is a simple vegetarian dish and the name of a mouse in a Disney movie! It can be prepared in two ways: chopping the vegetables to create a stew or by layering slices of vegetables. This particular recipe layers the vegetables for a pretty presentation.

  • Flavor: This dish has a fresh flavor with a bit of earthiness from the eggplant.
  • Tools: While it’s not required, a mandoline makes nice, even slices and saves on prep time. I have this mandoline and use it frequently (it’s great for scalloped potatoes, too).
  • Serving suggestions: I love this dish with fresh crusty bread or garlic bread. You can also serve it over pasta or quinoa.
sliced veggies to make Ratatouille

Ingredient Tips for Ratatouille

This recipe is a great way to enjoy those fresh garden veggies and a hearty vegetarian entree!

  • Zucchini: Choose medium zucchini or summer squash or yellow squash. There is no need to peel it.
  • Eggplant: I try to choose smaller eggplants as they tend to be less bitter, and their size is closer to that of the zucchini and tomatoes.
  • Tomatoes: Roma tomatoes are best in this recipe as they hold up well, have fewer seeds, and are a nice size. Any fresh tomatoes can be used.
  • Sauce – Crushed tomatoes, peppers, spices, garlic, and onion combine to create the simple sauce for this ratatouille recipe. Diced bell pepper or shredded carrot adds a bit of sweetness to balance the acidity of the tomatoes—you can replace it with ¼ to ½ teaspoon of sugar if needed.

Variations

  • Short on time? Replace the homemade sauce with marinara.
  • Garnish with a little bit of Parmesan cheese if desired.

How to Make Ratatouille

  1. Simmer the sauce ingredients in a pan until thickened (full recipe below).
  2. Thinly slice vegetables (I use a mandoline) and stack them. Arrange the stacked vegetables on their side over the sauce. Brush with olive oil.
  3. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes or until the veggies are tender and browned.

Top with chopped basil and serve immediately. A slice of homemade garlic bread or fresh French bread is perfect for soaking up this delicious sauce!

Ratatouille on a white plate with basil and a loaf of bread

Got Leftovers?

Store leftover Ratatouille in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Did you make this delicious Ratatouille? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!

image of Everyday Comfort cookbook by Holly Nilsson of Spend With Pennies plus text
pan of Ratatouille
4.99 from 59 votes↑ Click stars to rate now!
Or to leave a comment, click here!

Ratatouille (Layered)

Layered ratatouille is a beautifully arranged dish with thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes, baked to tender perfection with herbs.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4
buy hollys book

Ingredients  

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • ½ small onion chopped
  • ½ cup shredded carrot or diced red bell pepper*
  • 14 ounces crushed tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  • 1 small eggplant sliced
  • 1 large zucchini sliced
  • 3 roma tomatoes sliced
  • ½ teaspoon salt or more to taste
  • teaspoon black pepper or more to taste

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 375°F.
  • In a large skillet, cook onion, garlic, and carrot (or bell pepper) in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat, 4-5 minutes or until tender.
  • Stir in the crushed tomatoes and seasonings and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes or until thickened. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
  • Meanwhile, cut vegetables to ⅛-inch thickness.
  • Add the sauce to the bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Starting with the outer edge, arrange the sliced vegetables standing up on their sides over the sauce. Brush with remaining olive oil.
  • Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve hot or warm.

Video

Notes

For more sauce, add 28 oz of crushed tomatoes (instead of 14 oz). For a zestier sauce, add 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste. The sauce can be replaced with marinara sauce if desired.
Herbs can be replaced with 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence or Italian seasoning.
*Diced bell pepper or shredded carrot adds a bit of sweetness to balance the acidity of the tomatoes—you can replace it with ¼ to ½ teaspoon of sugar if needed.
Allow the sauce to simmer until thickened. The liquid from the vegetables will mix with the sauce and thin it out as it bakes.
For firmer vegetables, reduce baking time. For softer vegetables, increase bake time.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. 
4.99 from 59 votes

Nutrition Information

Calories: 152 | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 301mg | Potassium: 561mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 1095IU | Vitamin C: 43mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.

Course Dinner, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Italian
Diet Vegetarian
Ratatouille in the pan with a loaf of bread and a title
hearlthy Ratatouille in a pan with writing
easy to make Ratatouille with writing
pan of Ratatouille and close up photo with a title

Categories:

, , , ,

Recipes you'll love

About the author

Holly Nilsson is the creator of Spend With Pennies, where she creates easy, comforting recipes made for real life. With a passion for nostalgic flavors and simplified techniques, Holly helps busy home cooks create delicious meals that always work. She is also the author of “Everyday Comfort,” which promises to inspire even more hearty, home-cooked meals.
See more posts by Holly

Follow Holly on social media:

pinterest facebook twitter instagram

Free eBook!

Subscribe to receive weekly recipes and get a FREE Bonus e-book: Quick & Easy Weeknight Meals!

You can unsubscribe anytime by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of emails you receive.

4.99 from 59 votes (45 ratings without comment)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Comments

  1. Great post! I love how you broke down the recipe into easy-to-follow steps, and the photos make it look so delicious. I’m definitely trying this out soon—thanks for sharing!

  2. This was so good and we had no leftovers! Easier to make than it looks! Instead of using the different seasonings listed, I used my Blendit up Italian spice, added a little mozzarella on top while it cooked the last 15 minutes, and added portobello mushrooms to the circle of veggies. Cooked it in a white pie dish, sprinkled a little fresh basil before serving. Everyone ate it up and it was gone before I got some! LOL5 stars

  3. thanks for the recipe! turned out beautiful but i totally forgot the salt…also it could do with a little sugar to cut the acidity of the sauce. i ended up with too little tomatoes and too much of the other veggies also, will be using it in some other dish. but my sis loved it!

  4. Wow!!! A beautiful and delicious side dish. I added a little shaved parm on the top and inserted a few leftover homefries in between every stack. I will make again and again. Thank you!5 stars

  5. I really like the tastiness of this. Will try next with slommy, potatoss and thin carrots curled with a base of pasatata. Will call it potatauille 4 stars

  6. Great recipe! I added a couple tablespoons of butter to the sauce and pureed it with my immersion blender before adding it to the casserole dish and it was delicious! Served with some angel hair pasta on the side with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and it was a great meatless dinner!5 stars

  7. This was delicious! Mine didn’t look as pretty as the picture though. Only thing I changed was added some mozzarella for last 15 minutes and served over pasta.5 stars

  8. Super easy and so pretty! Used what we had in the garden and bought an onion. Maybe I forgot to season it but it’s very forgiving
    Served with Linguini it was a perfect summer supper5 stars

  9. This is a million times better than my French mom’s ratatouille. The eggplant is slightly crunchy on the edges and the vegetables are not mushy, which was the bane of my existence as a child!
    I don’t hate ratatouille anymore.

    1. The texture and size of a roma tomato is the best choice, but other tomatoes would work for sure Holly. Enjoy!

    2. Can this be prepared ahead of time (like a day in advance)? Fridge and cook a day later or Cook, fridge and reheat?

      1. Hi Jennifer, it should work well both ways. For leftovers, we store ratatouille in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

  10. Made this for my family a couple of nights ago. Used my favorite diced tomato instead of crushed and 4 cloves fresh garlic but otherwise made nearly to the letter. It was outstanding and we’ll surely add this to the saved recipes. Well done.5 stars

    1. I omitted the eggplant and layered yellow greed squash with tomato olive oil and salted a peppered Italian seasoning
      Baked with mozzarella pieces last 15 minutes5 stars

    1. We have not tried reheating this recipe after frozen but you want to try I would recommend not overcooking the veggies so they don’t get soggy when reheating. Hope that helps!

    1. You’ll find the recipe in the post Mike. Click the Jump to Recipe button at the top, or scroll to the recipe card. Enjoy the ratatouille!

  11. I love your recipes! Ratatouille is one of my favorites, especially when all fresh garden and market veggies are in season. Will make this tonight since I have most available! Thank you so much for sharing!! Wish I was able to forward some of these recipes to some of my out of state “chef” friends who, like me, love to cook!‍5 stars