Oven-Baked Ratatouille

 

Oven-baked Ratatouille is a modern interpretation of the classic stove top Niçoise dish, Ratatouille. It's roots are very firmly planted in the Provençal region of France. By baking the vegetables, and roasting the ripe tomatoes into a rich, garlicky tomato sauce, a delicious and caramelised flavour is imparted to the dish. I make this French vegetarian dish often.

We'd been away for a couple of weeks travelling south by car to the Brisbane region, but more of that later, and on our return our Chinese eggplant bushes, I think they are the Chinese variety, had produced quite a few eggplants. Chinese and Japanese eggplants are generally interchangeable in recipes. I love using them, because the skin is thinner than the globe eggplant and they have smaller seeds, with a very fresh flavour. Ours grow quite organically, with no sprays, and in good quality soil, and have a few marks on them sometimes, which doesn't deter at all from their flavour. The marks can easily be removed. The Chinese and Japanese eggplants are rarely found in the supermarkets here, but are often available at the Farmer's markets and specialty grocers, and in some home gardens like ours. There is no need to sweat these eggplants.

This is one of my favourite vegetarian recipes to cook when I have some fresh eggplant to use. I first found this recipe over 8 years ago in River Cottage Veg Everyday, when Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was the leading chef on the British River Cottage television show. I loved watching that show, and bought his book as a result. I haven't looked at the book in a long while, however when I did recently I still found it inspiring, and it is still one of my favourite resources for interesting vegetarian recipes, when I am in a vegetarian frame of mind. Hugh isn't a vegetarian either, but quite rightly advocates throughout the book, that we can't eat too many vegetables. This recipe is a variation of Hugh's recipe. Oven baked Ratatouille recipes are still in the latest recipe books and have never dated.

I first posted this recipe when I was very new to blogging, way back in 2015, when I was still testing the process. I've often made it over the years with different combinations of vegetables and herbs, and now that I have made this dish again recently, I have finally updated the post. It is still one of the most popular recipes on my blog. Sometimes I think I am still quite a novice at blogging, always learning, but I enjoy sharing delicious recipes with you all and love reading your comments, and reading your food blogs as well.

Ratatouille can be served with bruschetta, rice, a lamb roast, or just with sourdough bread and salad. I've given you 2 options for cooking the tomato sauce, depending on what you prefer and what you have on hand.

Oven-baked Ratatouille Recipe

Ingredients:

2 onions
A mix of 2 red, orange or yellow capsicum, halved, cored and deseeded (green will also do if that is all that you have)
400g zucchinis (courgettes)
350-400 g of chopped eggplant (aubergine), I used Chinese eggplant
5 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes or 2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes, chopped ( depending on which tomato sauce option you choose)
A small handful of oregano or thyme sprigs, leaves only chopped.

Optional: 2 x 400g cannellini beans, drained

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 deg. C/Gas Mark 5. Cut the onions into thick slices, from root to tip. Cut the capsicum unto 2-3cm pieces. Halve the zucchini and chop them thickly if very large. Cut the eggplant into 2-3cm cubes.

Place the vegetables and beans (if using) into a large roasting dish, add the olive oil, add plenty of sea salt and freshly ground pepper and toss it all together.

Roast for 1-1 1/2 hours, giving it all a good stir, a couple of times during the cooking process (careful you don't burn yourself), until the vegetables are tender and starting to brown around the edges.

Variations:

You now have two options. You can either make a tomato sauce on the stove top which is then mixed through the ratatouille vegetables at the end and baked for a further 10 minutes, or make a lovely variation with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes, economically using your oven at the same time as the other vegetables. I went for the the roasted cherry tomatoes option this time, because I had the tomatoes, and they impart a beautiful caramelised flavour to the dish, however it depends on what you have on hand and I will  provide the recipes for both.

1. Dry-roasted ratatouille with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes variation

This is my favourite variation using lovely oven-roasted cherry tomatoes instead of making the stove-top tomato sauce. However, the quality is dependant on the ripeness and size of the tomatoes. 

Arrange  500g halved vine-ripened  cherry tomatoes closely together in a single layer on a small roasting tray (which will be slightly smaller than the one you're roasting the vegetables in.) Trickle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the tomatoes at the same time as the vegetables,  on a lower oven shelf for at least an hour until reduced, wrinkled, and slightly caramelised and charred. They shouldn't need to be cooked as long as the other vegetable tray.

When the cooked roasted vegetables and the tomatoes have cooled a little, toss them very gently together in a bowl. Stir in the chopped oregano or thyme. Serve the dish at room temperature, and trickle a little extra olive oil and extra fresh herbs over the top if desired. This is a great way to use some of your special olive oil.

This ratatouille can also be served on bruschetta, on sourdough bread, or with couscous or rice. Or any ratatouille is perfect served with Roast Lamb, just saying.

2. Stove-top Tomato Sauce variation

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, slivered

2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf
A large sprig of thyme
A pinch of sugar

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the garlic and let it sizzle gently for a minute without browning then add the tomatoes with their juice, the bay leaf and thyme. Cook at a gentle simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring often and crushing the tomatoes down with a fork. When the sauce is thick and pulpy, season with salt and pepper and the sugar. (Sugar is optional but always nice with cooked tomatoes because of the acid within the tomatoes.)

Add the tomato sauce gently to the cooked vegetables, mix well, and return to the oven for 10 minutes until bubbling and fragrant.

Serve the ratatouille preferably warm, but never chilled. As I said above, his ratatouille can also be served on bruschetta, on sourdough bread, or with couscous or rice.

To finish the whole presentation, add a small handful of oregano or fresh thyme sprigs or basil, leaves only, finely chopped.

Cook's notes:

• Any beans will work here, chickpeas are also great. Beans are not in this photo but I have used them in this dish before.
• Leftovers in frig for 3 days, no freezing
• This dish works best in a heavy-based metal or a cast-iron roasting pan, which will conduct heat better than ceramic or glass baking dishes.
• The beans will make a real meal of this dish, but are definitely optional.
• Basil is also another ideal herb to add to this dish if you have it. 
• 1 large eggplant (aubergine) 400g, can also be used for this recipe instead of the Chinese or Japanese varieties. Unless it is extremely fresh, the eggplant may need to be sweated with salt, rinsed, dried, chopped into 2.25 cm cubes, and then drizzled with and coated with olive oil. 

It's optional meat-free Monday tomorrow, and this dish using fresh, glorious Mediterranean vegetables would be perfect for dinner.

Warmest wishes,

Pauline