Oven-baked ratatouille with roasted bell pepper sauce
Ratatouille is originally a vegetable stew from Provence, usually made with zucchini, eggplant, tomato, and bell pepper. But you probably know this version mainly from the movie Ratatouille: not coarsely stewed, but built up from wafer-thin slices of vegetables in a beautiful spiral.
Beneath that layer of vegetables lies a smooth sauce of roasted bell peppers and tomatoes. This makes the dish sweet, rich, and just a little more exciting than a plain vegetable casserole. By slow-cooking the ratatouille, the slices of eggplant, zucchini, and tomato become buttery soft, yet remain beautifully visible.
Serve the ratatouille as a side dish with fish, chicken, or roasted meat, or simply with good bread and a fresh salad.
Preparation method for oven-baked ratatouille with roasted bell pepper sauce
- Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius.
- Place the red and yellow bell peppers on a baking sheet and roast them for 25 to 30 minutes, until the skin is darkened, or burn them completely black with a gas torch. Then place the peppers in a bowl, cover, and let them steam for 10 minutes so that the skin comes off easily. Next, remove the skin, stems, and seeds.
- Chop the onion and finely mince the garlic. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and sauté the onion for about 5 minutes over low heat. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the diced tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of sugar, the roasted bell peppers, the thyme, and the bay leaf. Let the sauce simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Remove the thyme and bay leaf. Puree the sauce until smooth with an immersion blender together with some extra olive oil and season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Spread the sauce over the bottom of a round baking dish of approximately 24 to 26 centimeters.
- Slice the eggplant, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and Roma tomatoes into slices about 2 to 3 millimeters thick. Use a mandoline if you want nice, thin slices.
- Arrange the slices in the baking dish in an overlapping, alternating pattern. Maintain the same order throughout: eggplant, green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and tomato. Work from the outside in a spiral toward the center.
- Drizzle the vegetables with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Scatter the fresh thyme leaves over them and season with salt and black pepper.
- Lower the oven temperature to 135 degrees Celsius. Cut a piece of baking paper to approximately the size of the baking dish and place it directly on the vegetables.
- Bake the ratatouille for about 1 hour at 135 degrees Celsius, until the vegetables are completely soft but still retain their shape.
- Let the ratatouille stand for 5 minutes before serving. This allows the sauce to settle slightly, making it easier to scoop the vegetables out of the dish.
