In this traditional ratatouille recipe, thin layers of summer vegetables are baked in a tomato cream sauce for a garden dinner that's sure to impress your favorite critic.
Ask me about my favorite meal, and the answer will vary depending on the time of year. Right now, it's traditional ratatouille. I can’t think of a dish that better exemplifies the taste of summer.
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When I eat this vegetable stew, I remember 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 how anyone (including the rat, Remy) can cook. When Ego takes a bite of Remy's traditional 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 well worth watching. The food's visual detail is impressive, and the story is thoughtful and amusing. You should probably make a pan of this traditional ratatouille to enjoy while you watch.
😍 Why You'll Love This Ratatouille Recipe
- This recipe incorporates several summer vegetables, including as tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash.
- It tastes like summer in every bite.
- While a simple dish, it somehow feels both sophisticated and comforting.
Looking for more vegetable-based recipes? Try these:
🍲 More Than One Way to Make Ratatouille
What’s nice about traditional ratatouille is that you can make it simple or fancy. It’s a classic French dish that has a variety of preparation methods. You can go rustic and chop everything up to cook together on the stove. Or you can thinly slice each vegetable, layer them over a sauce, and slowly cook the whole thing in the oven.
I’ve often used the simple method of chopping and throwing everything in a pot, then cooking slowly to let it all meld together. Trust me, this is delicious, but it doesn’t make the most attractive presentation.
On the other hand, if that’s the route you want to take, you can skip a recipe. Sauté garlic and onions in olive oil in a large pot. Then chop the other vegetables and add them as you have them ready. Cook over low heat until everything is tender, and season with salt and herbs as you like.
🔪 The Confit Byaldi Method
But this time, I made the version of the traditional ratatouille from the film. I like how the vegetables are clearly distinguishable and can make an impressive arrangement in the pan or serving on a plate. This traditional ratatouille is prepared with a variation called confit byaldi.
Thomas Keller of The French Laundry popularized this method in one of his cookbooks in the 1990s. It turns out that Keller served as a food consultant for Ratatouille. The producer even spent a few days interning in Keller’s kitchen. Although it's an animated movie, you can tell that they still wanted to pay real attention to detail for the food. That's one of the many reasons why I love it.
Confit byaldi takes more time to prepare, though a mandolin will make the job easier. Slice the vegetables as thinly as you can so that as they cook, they almost melt together. It also helps if your vegetables are all about the same size.
This traditional ratatouille recipe starts by layering the baking dish with two sauces—a tomato and a béchamel. That’s different from the tomato and pepper sauces often used in ratatouille recipes, but I think it is a more appealing combination. You can use your favorite tomato sauce, whether homemade or not; it doesn’t matter. The whole vegetables are the star here.
🍅 Top Tip
When layering the vegetable slices in the pan, I find the most straightforward approach is to layer several pieces together in your hand and then place them into the dish all at once. 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 to keep things neat.
🍳 Equipment
Mandolin: This will help you get the perfect thinly sliced vegetables for your traditional ratatouille. However, a knife can do the job; it'll just take a little longer.
🙋🏻♀️ FAQ
Because they're sliced so thinly, it's not necessary to peel the vegetables for this ratatouille recipe.
Serve ratatouille over pasta, rice, couscous, or crusty bread. But my favorite is over a mound of cheesy, creamy polenta. Here's a good basic polenta recipe.
That's up to you. I prefer it hot, but I can see it being good at room temperature too.
🍸 Pairing
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📖 Recipe
Remy's Ratatouille
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
In this traditional French ratatouille dish, layers of thinly sliced summer vegetables are baked in a tomato cream sauce for a fresh garden dinner sure to impress your favorite critic.
Ingredients
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small bunch of fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup warm milk
- ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 medium eggplant
- 1 medium yellow squash
- 4 medium tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat 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 sauce by melting the butter over medium heat in a small pot. When melted, add the flour and cook for a minute or two until 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 teaspoons of salt. Stir the béchamel sauce into the tomato sauce in the bottom of your pan or dish.
- Thinly slice the zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, and tomato. A mandolin works well for all but the tomato, for which you may want to carefully use a sharp knife. Slice the eggplant last, as it will quickly turn brown.
- 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.
- Sprinkle ½ 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. Serve warm, topped with Parmesan.
- 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!