Ratatouille Recipe – Love and Lemons
This ratatouille recipe is a delicious mannequin of the fundamental French stew. It’s rich and flavorful, filled with late summer season greens, olive oil, and herbs.
Ratatouille is a French stew made with late summer season greens like eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. It’s rich with olive oil, good with vinegar, and flecked with current herbs. Must you haven’t tried it, put this ratatouille recipe in your itemizing to make this summer season. It’s way more nice than the Disney movie of the similar establish (which is pretty nice, if you happen to occur to ask me).
Making this ratatouille recipe always transports me to Provence, France. A few years previously, I stayed with a neighborhood family there. On my first night with them, they served ratatouille for dinner. We sat on their patio, ingesting rosé and scooping up the thick stew with crusty bread. I’ve always appreciated ratatouille, nonetheless that night cemented it as one amongst my favorite summer season dishes.
Since then, I’ve made ratatouille every summer season. This recipe is a streamlined and simplified mannequin of 1 I shared plenty of years previously. It comes collectively on the stovetop—no oven required!—and it’s merely as delicious as any ratatouille I’ve tasted in France. I hope you love it as rather a lot as I do!
Ratatouille Components
Proper right here’s what you’ll should make this ratatouille recipe:
- Onion and garlic – They create the stew’s savory base.
- Eggplant – Any choice will work, nonetheless I generally use a medium-large Italian globe eggplant proper right here.
- Zucchini – Yellow squash is sweet too!
- Peppers – Any kind of sweet pepper will work proper right here. I generally use yellow, orange, or crimson bell peppers. Stay away from inexperienced bell peppers—they obtained’t add ample sweetness to the ratatouille.
- Tomatoes – They break down proper right into a sauce that brings the other greens collectively. Solely use chopped current tomatoes on this recipe. Canned diced or crushed tomatoes will overpower the other veggies.
- White wine vinegar – It makes the ratatouille tangy and good.
- Extra-virgin olive oil – For sautéing the veggies. You’ll add 1 to a few tablespoons of oil to the pan at a time so that each vegetable turns into correctly caramelized and tender.
- A pinch of sugar – It tames the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
- Purple pepper flakes – For heat. Be at liberty to skip them if you happen to occur to’re delicate to spice.
- Current herbs – Basil and thyme add current, aromatic style to this recipe.
- And salt and pepper – To make the entire flavors pop!
Uncover the whole recipe with measurements beneath.
The fitting technique to Make Ratatouille
Must you’ve seen the Ratatouille movie, you could be questioning why my ratatouille doesn’t embody pretty layers of vegetable slices.
It’s question! The dish that Remy the rat makes throughout the movie is unquestionably a tian, a kind of casserole native to Provence. Whereas it’s delicious, it’s far fussier to make than typical ratatouille—a humble stovetop vegetable stew.
Proper right here’s my most popular methodology for the suitable technique to make ratatouille:
Start by prepping the eggplant. Chop it into 1/2-inch objects. Then, place it in a colander and sprinkle it with salt. Set it over a plate or bowl or throughout the sink to empty for 20 minutes.
Recipe Tip
You could be tempted to skip salting the eggplant, nonetheless this simple step is totally value it! It attracts moisture out of the eggplant, serving to it put together dinner additional evenly and concentrating its style.
Chop and salt the eggplant instantly. 20 minutes will nearly be up by the purpose you finish prepping the other components.
Then, put together dinner the eggplant. Blot it dry and sauté it in a giant skillet until tender, 10 to fifteen minutes. Take away it from the pan and put apart.
Subsequent, put together dinner the zucchini. When it’s tender (nonetheless not mushy!), take away it from the pan and put apart with the eggplant.
Then, put together dinner the peppers and onions until very tender, stirring throughout the garlic halfway via.
Why not put together dinner the entire greens immediately?
Eggplant, zucchini, and peppers have completely completely different put together dinner situations. If we now have been to toss them throughout the pan all collectively, the zucchini could possibly be mush sooner than the eggplant was close to tender.
These greens moreover embody a great deal of moisture. Within the occasion that they started throughout the pan collectively, there could possibly be an extreme quantity of moisture for the veggies to caramelize.
So, whereas cooking every individually requires additional time, it pays off. Each explicit particular person vegetable turns into utterly tender and caramelized, enhancing the flavour and texture of the final word stew.
As quickly because the onions, bell peppers, and garlic are tender, add the tomatoes, along with the crimson pepper flakes and sugar. Prepare dinner dinner until they break down proper right into a sauce, 8 to 10 minutes.
Lastly, simmer the ratatouille. Return the eggplant and zucchini to the pan. Add the vinegar, thyme, salt, and pepper and put together dinner until the ratatouille is thick.
Stir in half the basil and season to type. Garnish with additional basil and serve!
Uncover the whole recipe with measurements beneath.
Ratatouille Serving Methods
My favorite methodology to take pleasure in ratatouille is the one: in a large bowl with crusty bread on the aspect! It’s superb warmth or at room temperature, notably with a drizzle of olive oil and up to date basil on prime.
Listed under are only a few additional delicious strategies to serve it:
How do you want to eat ratatouille? Let me know throughout the suggestions!
Further Summer time season Recipes to Try
Must you love this ratatouille recipe, try one amongst these delicious summer season dishes subsequent:
Ratatouille
Serves 4
This ratatouille recipe is my favorite methodology to make the fundamental French stew. It’s rich and flavorful, filled with late summer season greens like eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. Serve it warmth or at room temperature with a drizzle of olive oil on prime and crusty bread on the aspect.
- 1 medium-large eggplant, 1 pound, decrease into ½-inch objects
- Sea salt
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional as wished
- 2 medium zucchini, 1 pound, decrease into ½-inch objects
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 crimson or yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and decrease into ½-inch objects
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 pound tomatoes on the vine, 3 to 5, decrease into ½-inch objects
- Pinch crimson pepper flakes
- Pinch cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons chopped current thyme leaves
- Freshly flooring black pepper
- ¼ cup thinly sliced current basil leaves, plus additional torn basil for garnish
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Place the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Place throughout the sink or over a giant rimmed plate and put apart for 20 minutes to empty. Blot dry with a transparent kitchen towel or paper towels.
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Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a giant skillet over medium heat. Add the eggplant and put together dinner, stirring typically, for 10 to fifteen minutes, or until tender. Change to a giant bowl and put apart.
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Add one different 1 tablespoon olive oil and the zucchini to the skillet. Prepare dinner dinner, stirring typically, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the zucchini is tender nonetheless not mushy. Season with ¼ teaspoon salt and change to the bowl with the eggplant.
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Add one different 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Add the onion and pepper and put together dinner for 5 minutes, stirring typically, or until softened. Stir throughout the garlic and ¼ teaspoon salt and put together dinner for a further 10 minutes, or until very tender. If the pan turns into dry, add additional oil as wished.
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Stir the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil into the peppers and onions. Add the tomatoes, crimson pepper flakes, and sugar and put together dinner for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes break down.
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Add the eggplant and zucchini once more into the skillet along with the vinegar, thyme, ¼ teaspoon salt, and several other different grinds of pepper. Prepare dinner dinner, stirring typically, for 10 to fifteen minutes, or until the ratatouille is thick. Stir throughout the basil and season to type. Garnish with additional basil and serve.
