Here is an easy ratatouille recipe: French sauteed eggplant, zucchini, tomato and bell pepper… Eat your veggies! Yep, and crunchy is the way I like my ratatouille best. What do you think?
I adore this easy ratatouille recipe!
French ratatouille or ratatouille nicoise, whatever you call it. Very often chefs will cut the vegetables in very thin slices and layer them in a gorgeous circle in an baking dish.
And I am absolutely certain that you just thought of the most famous ratatouille in the world: the one in the movie!
Have you seen it?
French Classic
However no fancy work for me though.
I just dice my beautiful fresh veg up and sautée them for a couple of minutes until they are cooked though. Dicing the vegetables goes much faster as well.
And so does cooking this dish.
Plain, simple, still a little crunchy and so colorful!
Easy Ratatouille Recipe (Side Dish)
Yep, crunchy is the way I like my easy ratatouille recipe best.
I don’t like it when the vegetables have been stewing on the stove or in the oven for hours. The flavors are still there, but the texture is totally lost.
What an absolute pity!
Look at these lovely buggers below: freshly diced eggplant, zucchini and bell pepper. Splendid flavors! I would be such a shame if they all tasted the same in the end.
Sicilian Caponata
Extra tip: if you got some ratatouille left (which probably won’t happens because it is so good), cover it and refrigerate. Next day sprinkle the cold veg with extra olive oil and just a touch of balsamic vinegar. And you got a wonderful lunch salad or mezze appetizer! Which also kind of resembles a Sicilian caponata by the way.
I also made a ratatouille style spaghetti sauce once, you will love it!
Do you love colorful vegetable side dishes?
Then you should also check out my easy tomato and zucchini bake! or how about my ratatouille style pasta sauce for penne!
Enjoy!
Easy Ratatouille Recipe
Easy ratatouille recipe: French sauteed eggplant, zucchini, tomato and bell pepper... Eat your veggies! Yep, crunchy is the way I like my ratatouille.
- 1 large fresh eggplant
- 1 medium fresh zucchini
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large fresh tomato
- 1 green bell pepper
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 small onion
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- dried herbs
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- olive oil
- pepper
- salt
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Trim the eggplant and chop it up into small dice. Place them in a sieve of colander and sprinkle with some salt.
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Let the eggplant marinate and release its liquid for 30 minutes. In the meantime peel, clean and chop up the garlic cloves and yellow onion. Do the same with the zucchini and the bell pepper. Pour a little bit of olive oil in a large non-stick pan and place it over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic.
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Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until a little soft. Rinse the diced eggplant and pat it dry with some kitchen paper. Then add this to the onion in the pan.
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Stir and cook for another 5 minutes. Then stir in the chopped zucchini and bell pepper. Add the fresh rosemary, the bay leaves and a sprinkle of pepper and salt.
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Stir the vegetables well. Cook for 5 minutes. In the meantime deseed the tomato and chop it up into small chunks. Add it to the vegetables in the pan together with the tomato paste. Add half a glass of water.
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Stir and cover the pan. Cook the ratatouille for 10 minutes until all of the vegetables are soft. Then check the seasoning and add extra pepper and salt to taste if necessary. Scoop the ratatouille in a clean serving dish and serve.
