This is a beautiful and versatile vegetable side dish. Thinly sliced Mediterranean vegetables arranged in rows and baked in a rich tomato sauce. Ratatouille Tian tastes and looks like summer.....but (thankfully) this is food you can enjoy all year round.
😊Versatile side dish
Ratatouille tian is fresh, light and bursting with colour. It's a welcome accompaniment to rich dishes, such as slow-cooked meat for dinner or a quiche for lunch. It’s the perfect ‘bring a plate’ for a BBQ. It’s a convenient make-ahead dinner party side dish or starter. It can be really useful when you don’t know if your eaters have any dietary needs. It’s a 'safe' dish, yet is delicious and isn’t ordinary.
- looks incredible
- low-carb
- healthy – packed with veggies
- keeps well
- make-ahead is recommended - it actually tastes better if made a day or two in advance.
- gluten-free
- vegan (*but doesn't have to be)
Choose your own adventure!
- there's no right or wrong way to arrange the vegetables – rows or spirals, or a combo of the two. It will look good regardless!
- any shape pan will do (see point above). A 30cm/9-inch round pan is equal to about 28cm/11 inch square. You would arrange the veg in rows in a square pan instead of a spiral.
- you could pre-prepare in a disposable aluminium dish to take to a BBQ.
- maybe group the same vegetables together for quicker assembly (rather than alternating).
- add slices of cheese, such as mozzarella or halloumi to make this a meal, rather than side dish. You can slot these in towards the end of the bake, once you have removed the baking paper and foil. Serve with crusty bread. Delicious!
🥘 Ingredients
- Rich Tomato Sauce
- Mediterranean Vegetables - eggplant/aubergine, pumpkin and zucchini/courgette
- Olive Oil
- Fresh Herbs - thyme, basil & parsley
NB: since originally writing this recipe, I've chosen to omit the tomatoes. I found the tian gets too wet with this addition. There's enough tomato in the sauce.
Use a good tomato sauce
Merely throwing in a can of tomatoes won’t cut it here. Use a good quality rich thick pizza/pasta sauce. Of course, I can highly recommend my Tomato & Basil sauce. I use this often - in my Vegetable Lasagne and pizzas – Chicago & traditional. It's a simple, yet delicious way to transform those canned tomatoes.
🔪 Instructions
We thinly slice pumpkin, eggplant (aubergine) and zucchini (courgette). The veggie slices are tightly packed upright in a bed of rich tomato sauce. We brush over herbed olive oil and bake until meltingly soft.
Pretty vegetables
Yes - slicing and arranging the veggies is a little time-consuming. Luckily, Ratatouille Tian ends up looking so pretty, you won't mind. Make sure your lucky eaters see it in its entirety! (before you dig into it). A mandoline (watch those digits!) makes light work of slicing the vegetables. You can achieve the same result using a sharp knife and a little patience.
We slice the veggies to a similar thickness, about 2mm.
Making veg 'sandwiches' makes it easier to transfer groups of veg to the dish.
Don’t throw away your veggie scraps!
The weight suggestions for each vegetable provided here will limit leftover slices. It is inevitable that you will still have a few, even after a bit of patchwork filling in. Toss in a little olive oil and seasoning, spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet or two. Bake in the oven alongside the tian (you’ve got the oven on after all), for around 20 minutes until a bit crispy and caramelised. Chef’s treat!
The colours are particularly vibrant before hitting the oven. They get uglier as they cook (but infinitely more tasty!).
We generously brush herby olive oil over the exposed tops of the veg. The olive oil adds wonderful flavour. It also helps protect the herbs and veg from burning.
The dish is first covered to allow the vegetables to soften without getting burned. The cover is then removed to encourage a little browning of the veg and thickening of the sauce.
Enjoy at room temperature for best results
Once cooked, you can enjoy this Ratatouille Tian hot straight from the oven or even cold from the fridge (or maybe that’s just me?). I like to snack on generous mounds of fridge-cold ratatouille on corn thins. Perfect for those times when you fancy a little ‘something’ and fast.
BUT, it tastes best served at a temperature somewhere between very hot and very cold. How convenient! Great for casual entertaining; it doesn’t mind (*prefers) to rest for a bit. It's not 'needy', like roast potatoes, risotto and falafel. Which are all absolutely wonderful, but are best served as soon as you cook them.
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- A mandoline is handy, though not essential
- Baking dish. A 30cm/9in round pan (if you want to arrange in a spiral) is equal to about 28cm/11in square (for rows)
Ingredients
- 400 ml Tomato & Basil Sauce (or any other good quality pizza/pasta sauce)
Veg – these amounts are very flexible
- 200 g eggplant/aubergine one large one
- 250 g pumpkin butternut (note 1)
- 250 g zucchini/courgette
Herb Seasoning
- small handful basil leaves
- small handful fresh parsley leaves
- Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 60ml olive oil (4 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven - to 170°C.
- Baking Paper – turn the empty baking dish upside down and use the outline to cut out sheet of baking paper. Set aside the paper. This will cover the veg for the first part of cooking later.
- Tomato Base - pour the tomato sauce into the dish.400 ml Tomato & Basil Sauce
- Slice Veg – peel the pumpkin (no need to peel the other veg). Thinly slice them, about 2mm thick.200 g eggplant/aubergine250 g pumpkin250 g zucchini/courgette
- Arrange Veg – create batches of sliced veg on a chopping board. Transfer these to stand upright in the tomato sauce, starting along the edge of the dish. Trim the slices if needed so that the veg are roughly the same dimensions. Don't overthink it; It will end up looking good whatever. If using a circular dish, continue the spiral to the centre, or fill in the centre with some columns. Squeeze in extra slices wherever they’ll fit (note 2).
- Herb Seasoning – finely chop up the basil, parsley and thyme. Stir the herbs into the olive oil. Season the top of the veg well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Brush the herby olive oil over the exposed parts of the vegetables.small handful basil leavessmall handful fresh parsley leavesTablespoon fresh thyme leavesSalt and pepper to taste60ml olive oil
- Cover & Bake – cover the veg with the baking paper, then foil. Cook for 40 minutes.
- Uncover & Bake – take off the layers of baking paper and foil and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes.
- Rest – remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes or so before serving. Good at room temperature too. Allow to cool completely with the covers off until room temperature if transferring to the fridge or freezer (see notes below).
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