Remy’s Ratatouille

My husband and I have a thing for animated movies.  We LOVE them.  And, Pixar’s Ratatouille stole our hearts.  Especially with our love for cooking – it’s the perfect movie for us. 

Since the release of Ratatouille, we started making the famed dish.  We have a stove-top version and a crockpot version, both of which we love. 

But this dish – Remy’s Ratatouille – is the best. 

The others don’t even come close. 

And, that’s saying a lot!

If you haven’t tried ratatouille, pick up some in-season eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and summer squash from your farmers market (or in our case, our garden) and make this right away. 

This dish is filling enough served over rice to stand alone, but would be great alongside steak or chicken.  Did I mention how easy this dinner is too? 

Remy’s Ratatouille – Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 medium bell pepper {we used orange}
• 1 large tomato
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium summer squash
• 4 mushrooms {we used baby bella}
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 C tomato sauce
• 1 T minced onion flakes
• 1 tsp. minced garlic (or 1 garlic clove, freshly minced)
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• Mozzarella cheese

Directions

Begin by slicing your eggplant, bell pepper, tomato, zucchini and summer squash into very thin slices.  I used our mandolin cutter to do so and it worked wonderfully. 

In a large oval baking dish (~10 inches in length), pour 1 tsp. olive oil, 1 T minced onion, 1 tsp. minced garlic and 1 C tomato sauce.  Stir together and spread over the base of the dish.  

Layer over the top of the dish all the veggies.  To do so, pick a location along the outside edge of the dish to start, and layer the zucchini, tomato, eggplant, bell pepper, summer squash {we used extra zucchini} and mushrooms.  Repeat layers until you have the entire dish filled around.  Then, fill in the center of the dish. 

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle the remaining 1 tsp. olive oil over the dish.

Cover the dish – using a cookie sheet, parchment paper or foil.  Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.  If you use foil or parchment paper, do not tightly seal the dish, you want the steam to escape! 

At this point the tomato sauce should be bubbly and it might look a little watery based on the fact that the veggies have released their excess water. 

Remove the dish from the oven and shred some mozzarella cheese over the top of the veggies.  Return the dish to the oven, uncovered, and bake for an additional 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted. 

Serve over brown rice.  Our favorite way to make excellent brown rice is to cook it in chicken broth with 1 tsp. added minced onion.  Yum. 

Enjoy!