What happens when you take thinly sliced vegetables, layer them in a dish, add a rich red sauce, plenty of herbs, and a cheesy topping? You get this insanely delicious Oven Roasted Ratatouille, aka “the vegetable dish that vegetable haters won’t be able to get enough of.” While this interpretation of ratatouille isn’t exactly traditional, I think you’re going to love it. It kind of reminds me of pizza, but like, made out of really pretty vegetables (and it certainly made my house smell like pizza).
Originally posted 5-19-2014, updated 7-8-2021.
What is Ratatouille?
Ratatouille is a classic French dish made of stewed vegetables, like tomato, zucchini, eggplant, onion, and bell pepper. It’s rich, comforting, and perfect for sopping up with a piece of crusty artisan bread or ladling over a bowl of polenta. As with most recipes that have been around for generations, there are many interpretations of ratatouille, and I definitely took mine in a different direction.
Rather than stewing the vegetables together in a pot, I chose to make an oven roasted ratatouille, which is a common alternative to the stewed version. Not only is oven roasting the sliced vegetables super pretty, but it’s a little more hands-off than stewing vegetables in a pot, which I appreciate. I also added marinara sauce to the bottom of my casserole dish which ends up mixing with the juices from the vegetables and creating the most delicious sauce (get some bread ready for dipping). Lastly, I topped with cheese, which definitely isn’t the norm for ratatouille, but it sure was delicious! And it really created that pizza-like effect.
What Size Vegetables to Use
This recipe is extremely flexible. I’ve given some approximate weight values for the vegetables below, but you can really use whatever size you have available and whatever you can squeeze into your baking dish. But a word of advice–once sliced the volume of the vegetables always ends up being more than you estimated, so err on the side of smaller vegetables.
And you don’t have to make the vegetables line up or alternate perfectly in the dish. Just squeeze the slices in there and you’ll be good! I promise it will still taste great even if it doesn’t look perfect. ;)
What Kind of Baking Dish to Use
The size of the dish you’ll need will probably vary a bit with the size of your vegetables, but I would suggest using something in the neighborhood of a 9″x11″ rectangular casserole dish, or a 3 quart round dish. You can use a dish made with glass, ceramic, or metal.
How to Serve Oven Roasted Ratatouille
Oven roasted ratatouille makes a delicious side dish for grilled or roasted meat, like Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin, Garlic Butter Baked Cod, or Herb Roasted Chicken Breast. You could also serve this as part of a vegetarian meal by pairing it with something like a rich and creamy risotto or serving it on top of a bowl of polenta.
Oven Roasted Ratatouille
Servings 8 ¾ cup eachIngredients
- 1 cup marinara sauce ($0.50)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.25)
- 1 eggplant (about 1 lb.) ($1.49)
- 1 zucchini (about ½ lb.) ($0.71)
- 1 yellow squash (about ½ lb.) ($0.55)
- 3 Roma tomatoes ($0.87)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/8 tsp Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.01)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.01)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella ($0.94)
- 1 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional) ($0.09)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Thinly slice the yellow onion. Slice the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes into ⅛-inch thick slices. Cut any pieces with a larger diameter into half-rounds.
- Pour the marinara in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Sprinkle the sliced onions over top.
- Begin to line up the sliced eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes into the dish, standing on their sides, and in an alternating pattern until all of the pieces are used up. Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables, then sprinkle the basil, oregano, salt, and pepper over top.
- Transfer the dish to the oven and roast the vegetables for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over top. Return the casserole dish to the oven for five minutes, or until the cheese is melted and creamy.
- After roasting, sprinkle the chopped parsley over top, then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Oven Roasted Ratatouille – Step by Step Photos
For this recipe, I used one small eggplant (about 1 lb.), one yellow onion, one yellow squash (1/2 lb.), one zucchini (½ lb.), and three Roma tomatoes. The eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes are the vegetables that will get layered pretty in the dish, while the onion will be hiding underneath in a base layer.
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Thinly slice the eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. You want everything to be similar in height when placed in the casserole dish, so for pieces with a larger diameter, you’ll want to slice those in half (I did this for the eggplant and larger ends of the squash and zucchini). Aim for ⅛-inch thick slices.
Thinly slice the onion. Spread 1 cup marinara in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Sprinkle the sliced onion over top.
Layer the vegetables in the dish standing up on their sides, like cards in a card catalog (wait, did I just date myself??). They do NOT need to be perfect. Just start squeezing them in as best you can. It’s nice to try to alternate them in a pattern, but once you get toward the end you might have more left of one type of vegetable, so just start popping them in there anywhere they’ll fit. Drizzle 1 Tbsp olive oil over top. Sprinkle ½ tsp dried basil, ½ tsp dried oregano, ⅛ tsp freshly cracked pepper, and ¼ tsp salt on top of the vegetables.
Transfer the dish to the preheated 400ºF oven and roast for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle 1 cup of shredded mozzarella on top. Return the dish to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and creamy.
Top with a little chopped parsley, then serve!
So delicious… and it’s just begging for a beautiful baguette to bathe in it. Mmmmm. You’ve got to spoon some of that sauce from the bottom of the pan onto your plate!
Closer look? So pretty. I ❤️ vegetables!
This was delicious! Definitely will be making it again. Might add a few cloves of minced garlic next time. Thank you for the recipe!
do you think this would be okay to serve with pasta? And if so, what kind?
Do you mean serve this as a side to pasta? This is a very versatile side dish that could be served with just about any type of pasta. Here are our pasta archives if you want to browse some pasta ideas and see if anything looks good to you.
I serve this over pasta, too. My kids really like it like that!
I have passata, so I’ll use that instead of marinara but will sprinkle lots of minced garlic over, maybe chopped roasted red pepper, too. I like lots of onion, so I’ll probably use more than one. I might add some canned quartered artichoke hearts, too. I’ll use glugs of basil EVOO to top (don’t like dried basil and my basil oil is delish). Instead of shredding my mozzarella, I’ll slice it and top casserole with lots of slices. Definitely serve with sliced toasted (or not) baguette!
So all I need to buy are: eggplant, tomatoes, squashes, and baguette! Say, would chickpeas work in this? I might try a can and see — on top of the passata, maybe with kalamata olives, too. This kind of Mediterranean casserole is delicious hot, warm, or right out of the fridge!
This was so good I could not stop eating it. I will definitely be making this again. Thanks for the recipe.
This looks so super yummy! Due to various food allergies in our household, do you have any suggestions for a substitute for eggplant or should I just
use more zucchini, yellow squash, and roma romatoes? Also cannot use shredded mozzarella, do you think a non-dairy cheese like the Violife or Daiya brand would work well?
Hi, you can also try doing some red bell pepper, which is often used in ratatouille. You can either leave the cheese off or try one of your non-dairy cheeses, although I’ve never cooked with any of those so I can’t comment on which would work best.
I’ve made this 3 times and it’s easy, gets better on 2nd day — I reheat a portion in microwave — and delicious with toasted bread with olive oil. Thank you for this recipe!
This was delicious and a big hit with my kids! We topped it with some sliced pepperoni at my children’s suggestion and served it over whole wheat pasta. It was a great way to use the eggplant from our CSA.
Oh yum! I love the pepperoni addition.
Sorry Bob Dobbs! We served this on Arepas to make gluten free pizzas. And all three of my picky eaters gobbled it like the little gremlins they are 🥳. I used yellow peppers, squash and tomatoes so I didn’t have any leftovers which was sad. Beth, thank you for helping me try new things and getting my kids to the try them too!
Love this. My husband does not like eggplant, so I leave it out. Has anyone tried this mixed along with other vegetables such as green beans, broccoli, or corn?
CHEESE? must be an American version
PLEEZ NO CHEEZE!
I am a real amateur cook, but I rocked this one. I added several cloves of chopped garlic in the marinara base and some sliced orange and red peppers. My wife and I both loved it.
I’m thinking about adding spaghetti squash and ground turkey. Thoughts?
Hmm, I’m not sure how you’d add those two things unless you cook them separately first.
I actually browned some ground beef with the onions and mixed in the marinara sauce, then topped with the rest of the veggies and it came out perfect!
Nice!!
Love this recipe, but I have a few tweaks that IMHO really take this dish to the next level. I always salt the eggplant, zucchini, and squash and let them sit for at least half an hour beforehand to pull the water out. Then I rinse them off, pat them dry, and toss them in the spices: basil, oregano, parsley, pepper, and a little bit of paprika. No salt, since it all won’t have rinsed off and they will be perfectly salty. Otherwise, I find it to be a little more watery then I’d like and a little bland. I also sautéed the onions and garlic together in a pan a little bit so you really get the flavor out of them. Then prep and cook as the recipe suggests, serve it with some garlic bread and you’ve got my favorite meal!
Brittany, thanks for the info. . .When I read the recipe I was wondering if I should salt my eggplant and zucchini first since I do with other recipes. :)
What steps would you prefer I take if I wanted to add chicken breast?
Hmm, I don’t know that you could really layer in chicken breast with this one. I would just cook the chicken breast separately and serve them side by side.
I just made this with chicken breast and it was delicious. I browned the chicken, let it rest for about half an hour. I put nonstick spray on the bottom of a meat loaf pan, added zucchini, then tomato sauce, cooked cooled chicken cut in cubes. I added alot of chives on top, a little parsley, a good portion of celery, more tomato sauce on top, then cheese. I cooked at 400F covered for about half hour, then let the cheese melt and crisp the last 10-15 minutes. Your oven may vary, I use a propane oven. I touched the celery and cheese to see how it was coming along. :-)
Delicious! It also looks more complicated than it is, so you get to show off a little bit :)