Baked ratatouille (the layered kind)
Thin rounds of eggplant, zucchini, squash and tomato fanned over a sweet pepper sauce and baked until tender, like the one in the movie.
- 115 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $4.01 a serving
- 570 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ cups crushed tomatoes
- 1 eggplant, long and slim if you can find one
- 2 zucchini, medium
- 1 yellow squash
- 3 Roma tomatoes
- 4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
- 1 French bread, for serving
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1½ tsp dried thyme, divided
- 1½ tsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 570 calories, 22 g protein, 80 g carbs and 20 g fat, and costs about $4.01 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No crushed tomatoes? Diced tomatoes work.
- No French bread? Sourdough bread works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 375°F.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 10-inch oven-safe over medium heat and cook the onion and pepper until soft, 6 to 8 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 7 min
Add the garlic for 1 minute.
Medium heat
Stir in the crushed tomatoes, ½ teaspoon thyme and ½ teaspoon salt and 5 minutes. Smooth the sauce into an even layer and take the pan off the heat.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
the eggplant, zucchini, squash and tomatoes into rounds about ⅛ inch thick, keeping them as even as you can.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Dolly’s tip: Go slowly and keep your fingertips curled under. Even slices cook evenly, and speed doesn’t matter here.Starting at the edge of the pan, stand the slices up on the sauce in an overlapping spiral, alternating eggplant, zucchini, squash and tomato, until the pan is full.
with the remaining oil and sprinkle with the rest of the thyme and salt and the pepper.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Cover the pan with foil and for 40 minutes.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Timer: 40 min
Uncover and until the vegetables are completely tender and at the edges, 25 to 30 minutes more. Dot with the goat cheese for the last 5 minutes.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Timer: 28 min
Let it 10 minutes, then spoon it onto plates with plenty of sauce and warm crusty bread for mopping it up.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 10 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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