Summer vegetables make a tasty Ratatouille

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I took a trip to our local bookstore. She wanted to check out the Stephen King section and I had an urge for a new cookbook. She was standing beside me as we flipped through a cookbook that looked promising when we came across a beautiful photo of ratatouille. It was layered in an oval dish and the vibrant colors of the vegetables popped off the page. She commented on how good it looked and asked me to make it for her.

Just so you know, my child doesn’t like any of the vegetables that are in traditional French ratatouille. I was slightly shocked by her request. However, I promised to make this new irresistible dish for her.

I was also in the midst of developing new ideas for my weekly “Taste” food column in The Southern Illinoisan newspaper – the regional paper where I live. So, ratatouille went on the list and was published recently.

Layered Ratatouille

I used a more traditional stew recipe for the newspaper because I wanted to provide an easy way for someone to be introduced to the dish. I personally preferred the layered version I made at home because the oven-roasted flavor is very pronounced in the vegetables.

Layered Ratatouille

Recipe by Niki Davis

Servings

4

-6 servings

Prep time

0

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Calories

kcal

Summer vegetables are perfect for this layered ratatouille that is baked in the oven. 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• ½ medium sweet onion diced

• 1 can 15 ounces petite diced tomatoes

• 1 garlic clove minced

• 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence

• ½ teaspoon salt divided

• ¼ teaspoon black pepper

• 1 zucchini thinly sliced

• 1 Japanese eggplant thinly sliced

• 1 yellow squash thinly sliced

• 1 red pepper seeded and sliced in rings

•  

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F. Heat the oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat then add the onions. Cook the onions until they just begin to soften. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, herbs de Provence, half of the salt, and pepper and cook until heated through. Spread the tomato mixture evenly over the bottom of the skillet. 
• In an alternating pattern, layer the zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, and red pepper around the skillet beginning at the outside edge. Sprinkle the vegetables with the remaining salt. 
• Bake for 45 minutes or until the vegetables are crisp-tender. 
•  

Notes

• This recipe easily filled a 10-inch cast iron skillet. 

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If you are wondering whether my kiddo actually ate it, she did! She loved it. Albeit, I did put a bit of an Italian spin on this one to make sure she would eat it. She ate it for three days!

Leftover Ratatouille

My family isn’t big on leftovers, so I try to find ways to repurpose “last night’s dinner” into new dishes. Ratatouille is pretty simple.

We ate it with breaded chicken on the night I fixed it.

The next day for lunch, I fixed pasta to go along.

After that, I incorporated some of the vegetables into tomato-based pasta sauce and tossed it with rotini.

For breakfast, I ate some of the vegetables with a poached egg. My daughter didn’t care for this rendition, but I thought it was scrumptious. This would also be tasty layered over toast with an egg on top.

Chicken Parmesan would be a great accompaniment, too.

As you can see, I lean more toward the Italian creations as opposed to the French. It’s all a matter of taste and anything goes when you’re the chef!