This recipe for Remy's Ratatouille is inspired by the film Ratatouille and puts a modern twist on the traditional French vegetable stew. In this version, thin slices of zucchini, eggplant, summer squash, and tomato are layered over a tomato cream sauce and baked until melt-in-your-mouth tender.
When I eat this ratatouille vegetable stew, I reflect on the warm summer days I spent growing vegetables in my garden. Maybe that makes me a bit like Ego, the food critic in Ratatouille, the 2007 Pixar film that tells a story about how anyone including the rat, Remy, can cook.
When Ego takes a bite of Remy's ratatouille, he's immediately transported to the happy days of his childhood and his mother's cooking.
If you haven't seen Ratatouille, it's one of my favorite movies. The visual detail of the food is impressive, and the story is thoughtful and amusing. You should probably make a pan of my traditional ratatouille to enjoy while you watch.
Ratatouille can be as simple or as refined as you like. You can chop everything and simmer it on the stove for a rustic vegetable stew, or, like in my recipe here, thinly slice the vegetables and layer them over a tomato sauce for a more elegant baked version.
Update note/short rant: I've been told this isn't "traditional ratatouille." Frankly, I don't care. It's delicious. Words like "traditional" don't mean much, anyway. Traditional for whom? What if my family made the dish like this for years? It would be traditional to me.
😍 Why You'll Love This Ratatouille Recipe
- This ratatouille dish incorporates several summer vegetables, including tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash. It's a great way to use up a bunch of vegetables and feel good about cooking seasonally and healthily.
- It tastes like summer in every bite. Summer vegetables are the star of the show.
- While a simple dish, it somehow feels both sophisticated and comforting. It'll make you slow down and appreciate the simple things in life, even zucchini.
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🍅 Ingredients in ratatouille
Here's what you need to make a ratatouille dish just like Remy the rat.
Key Ingredients
- Zucchini, summer squash, and eggplant: Look for these fresh vegetables when they're in season in your area and aim to have them be all about the same width for the best presentation. One small-medium sized vegetable of each should be enough for this recipe. If you can't find similar sized vegetables, you can always cut the slices in half.
- Tomatoes (fresh and crushed): Fresh sliced tomatoes are part of the stew and are arranged with the other vegetables. Crushed tomatoes make up the sauce on the bottom of the pan. Canned tomatoes are fine, unless you have extra fresh tomatoes to use and want to crush them yourself.
- Onion and garlic: Aromatic flavorings for the ratatouille sauce on the bottom of the pan.
- Parmesan cheese: I like to sprinkle grated Parmesan over the top of the ratatouille in the final minutes of cooking in the oven for a lightly
- Thyme: I like to use a bit of fresh thyme to add mild earthiness to the dish. You could try some chopped fresh oregano instead (or in addition to the thyme) or top it off with chopped parlsey or basil after cooking.
- Milk: Whisked into the roux to make a simple bechamel sauce. Use whatever milk you prefer. For a richer sauce, try cream or half and half.
Check out the recipe card below for the complete list of ingredients and quantities.
🥔 Substitutions & Variations
- Larger dish: You can make this in a larger dish to fit more vegetable slices. Arrange them in any pattern (not just in a spiral) as you like.
- Vary the veg: You can customize this ratatouille any way you like. Don't like or don't have one of the vegetables? Leave it out.
- Ratatouille with potatoes: Add thinly sliced, peeled potatoes to the rotation with the other vegetables. You can use less of the others or a large pan to incorporate more.
- Ratatouille with meat: Sauté ground beef or sausage in a bit of oil in the pan. When cooked, drain off any excess fat and proceed with the recipe as written.
🔪 Instructions
Here's how to make my take on traditional ratatouille:
- Step 1: Spread the crushed tomatoes across the bottom of your pan. Preheat to oven to 375 degrees F.
- Step 2: Chop onion, garlic, and thyme. Spread these over the tomatoes in the pan, saving about half of the thyme to go on top.
- Step 3: Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook over low heat for a couple of minutes until golden and fragrant.
- Step 4: Whisk in the milk and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes or until thickened.
- Step 5: Stir the bechamel sauce into the tomatoes and onions in the pan. Add salt.
- Step 6: Thinly slice the eggplant, tomato, yellow squash, and zucchini to about ⅛ of an inch.
- Step 7: Grab a slice of each vegetable in your hand, then place them on the outer edge of the pan.
- Step 8: Continue to add repeating slices of vegetables around the pan, adjusting and adding in more vegetables as needed.
- Step 9: After filling the pan with vegetables, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with more salt and remaning thyme.
- Step 10: Place a piece of parchment paper over the pan of ratatouille, tucking in the edges as much as possible. Bake for 50 or so minutes, then remove the parchment, top with the grated Parmesan, and cook for 5-10 more minutes until golden and bubbly.
✨ Top Tips
- When layering the vegetable slices in the pan, I like to layer several pieces together in my hand and then place them into the dish together. (See step 7 above.) Then repeat with the next sequence of vegetable slices, creating a circular pattern (if using a round pan or rows if using a square or rectangle) and adjusting as I go to keep things neat.
- Don't skip the parchment. It helps to trap some of the steam and cook the vegetables without drying them out.
- Leftover vegetables? Toss them together in a small baking dish and bake along with the arranged ratatouille. Serve them as needed or save for another meal.
🍆 confit byaldi Method
Thomas Keller of The French Laundry popularized this method for ratatouille in one of his cookbooks in the 1990s. It turns out that Keller served as a food consultant for the Ratatouille film and that is how the dish is prepared by Remy. Although it's an animated movie, you can tell that they still wanted to pay close attention to detail for the food. That's one of the many reasons why I love it.
🍳 Equipment
Mandolin: An optional tool that will help achieve perfectly thin and consistent slices of vegetables. However, a sharp knife and careful slicing will do the job just fine.
🥡 Storage
Leftover ratatouille may be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. I don't reccomend freezing leftovers, as the vegetables will lose their texture and turn mushy upon reheating.
🥡 What to serve with ratatouille
Pasta: A fitting and easy choice, as the tomato sauce and vegetables will coat the noodles and create a filling vegetable and pasta meal.
Rice or couscous: For a lighter choice, go for a grain like rice or small pasta like couscous.
Polenta: My favorite way to serve ratatouille is over a small mound of creamy polenta with cheese and butter. The tomatoes and vegetables cut the richness of the polenta and offer a balanced, yet still filling, dish. Here's a basic polenta recipe. (I'd reduce the salt in half and use Parmesan instead of cheddar.)
On toasted bread: For a lighter meal or even as an appetizer format, serve the ratatouille over slices of Italian or sourdough bread.
🙋🏻♀️ FAQ
Ratatouille is a French vegetable stew that typically includes zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and sometimes bell pepper. Vegetables may vary from recipe to recipe. It may be served as a side dish, appetizer, or as part of a main dish.
Because they're sliced so thinly, it's not necessary to peel the vegetables for this ratatouille recipe.
That's up to personal preference. I prefer to serve ratatouille hot, but I can see it being good at room temperature as well. I've never tried it cold.
Sure! While this version is vegetarian, you can crumble ground sausage or beef into the sauce before topping with the vegetables before baking.
🥖 Pairing
Try pairing any of these recipes with Remy's ratatouille:
📖 Recipe
Remy's Ratatouille
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: about 4 as part of a meal 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This recipe for Remy's Ratatouille is inspired by the film Ratatouille and puts a modern twist on the traditional French vegetable stew. In this version, thin slices of zucchini, eggplant, summer squash, and tomato are layered over a tomato cream sauce and baked until melt-in-your-mouth tender.
Ingredients
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1 small onion or ½ medium
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small bunch of fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup warm milk
- ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 medium eggplant
- 1 medium yellow squash
- 4 medium tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup grate Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Instructions
- Prep the ratatouille sauce. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the tomato sauce over the bottom of a baking sheet, casserole dish, or large cast-iron pan. Chop the onion and garlic and spread them over the sauce. Strip the leaves from the thyme sprigs and sprinkle half over the sauce.
- Make the béchamel. Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. When melted, stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two until lightly browned. Slowly whisk in the milk. When smooth, bring it to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Remove from the heat and season with the nutmeg, a few grinds of black pepper, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Stir the béchamel sauce into the tomato sauce in the bottom of your pan or dish.
- Slice the veg. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice the zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, and tomato. If you have one, a mandolin also works well for all but the tomato, for which you may want to carefully use a sharp knife.
- Assemble. Arrange several slices of the vegetables in your hand, then place them into your pan over the sauce. Repeat this process with the same vegetable order until they're tightly packed and the pan is full. You can go in rows or try a circular pattern. If you still have leftover vegetable slices, fill them in where needed or toss together in an extra baking dish.
- Bake. Sprinkle the remaining ¾ teaspoon of salt and the remaining thyme over the vegetables. Drizzle over the olive oil. Cover the dish with a piece of parchment paper and bake in the oven for 50 - 60 minutes. Remove the parchment, sprinkle with Parmesan, and cook for 5-10 more minutes until golden.
Notes
When layering the vegetable slices in the pan, I like to layer several pieces together in my hand and then place them into the dish together. (See step 7 above.) Then repeat with the next sequence of vegetable slices, creating a circular pattern (if using a round pan or rows if using a square or rectangle) and adjusting as I go to keep things neat.
Don't skip the parchment. It helps to trap some of the steam and cook the vegetables without drying them out.
Leftover vegetables? Toss them together in a small baking dish and bake along with the arranged ratatouille. Serve them as needed or save for another meal.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 60
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Sarah O says
I have always wanted to try making ratatouille and this was such a great recipe! So delicious and fun to make!
Steve says
So glad you had fun making this, Sarah!