One-Pot Layered Ratatouille transforms a classic French dish into a beautiful and delicious meal. Thinly sliced Japanese eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes are arranged over a thick tomato sauce cooked with aromatic herbs. This easy yet impressive dish celebrates summer produce while delivering a comforting, healthy dinner option.
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Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need
- The Veggies: This dish is packed with delicious and healthy fresh vegetables: Japanese eggplant, roma tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, bell pepper, and garlic.
- The Herbs: I used fresh basil and fresh thyme to accent the flavors of the veggies.
- The Sauce: The veggies are layered on a rich tomato sauce that includes onions, bell peppers, and garlic sautéed in olive oil, tomato puree, and a bit of white wine vinegar.
- The Seasonings: The seasonings are simple - Kosher salt and black pepper.
Preparing the Veggies
- I started by slicing the eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes into ⅛-inch slices, using my food processor with a 3 mm slicing blade.
- Once all of the veggies were sliced, I placed them in a single layer on doubled paper towels and sprinkled them with Kosher salt to draw out the excess moisture. I let the salted veggies sit for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, I blotted the veggies with paper towels to remove as much of the moisture as possible.
Making the One-Pot Layered Ratatouille
- Next, I heated half of the olive oil over medium heat in a 10-inch oven-safe pan. I used my small saucier for this. Once the oil was hot, I added the onions, bell pepper, salt, and pepper and cooked them until they began to soften, about 10 minutes.
- Once the onions and bell pepper had softened, I added the garlic, basil, and part of the thyme. I stirred everything together and cooked the mixture until it was fragrant about 30 seconds.
- Then, I added the tomato puree, and stirred everything together. I cooked the tomato mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickened. This took about 10 minutes.
- Finally, I stirred in some white wine vinegar and removed the pan from the heat.
- Now came the fun part! Starting at the outer edge of the pan and working inward, I arranged the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and Roma tomatoes in concentric circles on top of the sauce. I overlapped the slices so that just a little bit of each slice was visible.
- I drizzled the remaining olive oil over the veggies and sprinkled on the remaining thyme. Then, I covered the pan with aluminum foil and baked the ratatouille in a 375°F oven for about 40 minutes.
- I removed the ratatouille from the oven, removed the aluminum foil, and let the dish sit for about 5 minutes before serving.
One-Pot Layered Ratatouille is an impressive and delicious dish.
Its vibrant colors, rich flavors, and healthy ingredients make it perfect for a main course or a side dish. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
Japanese eggplants are long and slender compared to regular eggplant's globe shape. They are also sweeter and have thinner skins, making them perfect for this layered ratatouille. Therefore, I don't think that regular eggplant would be a good substitute.
I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan, so I hesitate to say for sure that the dish is vegan. However, it is definitely vegetarian and probably vegan as well.
The Roma tomatoes that I used were quite firm, and using the food processor to slice them worked well, at least for me. An added benefit was that most of the watery seeds naturally fell out of the slices when sliced. If in doubt, however, use a mandoline or sharp knife for the tomatoes.
One of the beauties of this dish is that it can be made in advance. Once the veggies have been arranged on top of the tomato puree mixture, you can cover and refrigerate the dish for up to a day. Remove it from the refrigerator, drizzle it with olive oil and thyme, and bake, adding five minutes to the baking time if it is cold.
This makes amazing leftovers. Allow the ratatouille to come to room temperature and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to three days. I like to reheat the leftovers in the microwave. They're also good at room temperature with French bread.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Since the eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and squash are layered, it's best if they're all roughly the same diameter.
- Yellow squash tends to narrow towards the stem end. To keep its diameter the same as that of the other vegetables, cut off the stem end and use it for another purpose.
- Make sure that the vegetables are roughly the same thickness regardless of how you slice them. This ensures that they will cook evenly.
- Tomato puree is thicker than tomato sauce and is therefore preferable to tomato sauce in this recipe.
- The zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and, to some extent, the eggplant all have a lot of moisture. Salting them is important to help extract the excess moisture before cooking. Otherwise, your ratatouille could be quite soupy.
Other One-Pot Wonders
If you're a fan of one-pot wonders, I have you covered. Try these amazing recipes.
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Recipe
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One-Pot Layered Ratatouille
Equipment
- Food Processor with 3mm blade
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 Japanese eggplants (about 8 ounces) (See Tip 1)
- 1 medium zucchini (about 8 ounces) (See Tip 2)
- 2 to 3 medium squash (12 to 16 ounces) (See Tip 2)
- 3 Roma tomatoes (See Tip 2)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons Kosher salt
- ½ cup olive oil, divided
- ½ cup seeded and diced bell pepper (one medium)
- 1 ½ cups chopped onion (one medium onion)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup tomato puree (See Tip 3)
- 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- ¼ cup fresh basil, roughly torn (See Tip 4)
- 2 Tablespoons fresh thyme, divided
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar (See Tip 5)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Slice the eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes into ⅛-inch slices using a food processor with a 3mm blade. (See Tip 6)
- Place the eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomato slices in a single layer on doubled layers of paper towels. Sprinkle each with ½ teaspoon of Kosher salt. Allow to sit for 30 minutes to help extract excess moisture. (See Tip 7)
- After 30 minutes, blot the veggies with additional paper towels.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a 10-inch oven-safe braiser or skillet. Add onions, bell pepper, remaining ¼ teaspoon of salt, and pepper. Sauté for 8 to 10 minutes or until softened. Add garlic, basil, and 1 ½ tablespoons of thyme. Stir to combine and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the tomato puree; stir to combine. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, or until thickened.
- Stir in the vinegar and remove from the heat. Spread in an even layer on the bottom of the pan.
- Arrange the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and Roma tomatoes in concentric circles on top of the sauce. Start at the outer edge of the pan and work inward, alternating the vegetables and overlapping the slices so that just a little bit of each slice is visible. May be prepared in advance up to this point. (See Tip 8)
- Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over the vegetables. Sprinkle the remaining 1 ½ teaspoons of thyme over the top.
- Cover with a tight-fitting lid or aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven until the vegetables are softened but are not browned around the edges, 40 to 45 minutes. Uncover and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with torn basil leaves if desired.
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings. (See Tip 9)
Video
Tips/Notes
- Japanese eggplants are long and slender. They are sweeter with thinner skin than regular globe eggplants, and are therefore ideal in this recipe. I would avoid substituting regular eggplant.
- For visual appeal, try to ensure that eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, and Roma tomatoes are the same diameter since they will be layered together.
- Tomato puree is thicker than tomato sauce and is therefore preferable to tomato sauce in this recipe.
- I prefer to tear the basil rather than cut it with a knife. If cut with a knife, the basil tends to quickly discolor.
- Red wine vinegar may be substituted for white wine vinegar.
- You might think it odd that I sliced the Roma tomatoes with a food processor. However, the food processor worked well because the Roma tomatoes were quite firm. An added benefit was that most of the watery seeds were naturally removed from the tomato slices.
- The zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and, to some extent, the eggplant all have a lot of moisture. Salting them is important to help extract the excess moisture before cooking. Otherwise, your ratatouille could be quite soupy.
- Once the veggies have been arranged on top of the tomato puree mixture, you can cover and refrigerate the dish for up to a day. If baked after being refrigerated, add about 5 minutes to the cooking time.
- This makes excellent leftovers - just reheat in the microwave.
Nutrition
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