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!
I make this once a week, it’s SO good! Do i add some extra cheese sometimes? Yes. It is still awesome when I don’t? No doubt.
Sounds good!!!!
Can this be frozen??
Yes. But if you are freezing it, I recommend undercooking the veg, so it doesn’t turn to much when you reheat it. Cool it completely before placing in a freezer safe container. It should keep for up to 3 months. XOXO -Monti
This was amazing! I made it with more sauce, cheese, and salt, and the result was wonderful.
Is a yellow squash similar to a butternut squash which has a hard skin
Yellow squash is a summer squash, more like zucchini. The skin is not hard!
Do you have to do anything special with the eggplant? I thought you had to salt eggplant and let it sit for a while to get rid of the bitter taste in it. Did you do this or did you just toss it straight in?
Hi Tara! Salting eggplant is important if you’ll be frying it, as the high-water content doesn’t give you the best results. But for a dry-cook method like a roasting, you’re fine adding it as is. Happy cooking! XOXO -Monti
This was cheap, easy, and delicious. Made a really great meal prep. I put it on top of lentil pasta 😋😋😋
This has become a staple in our house – it’s so good! We do use a bit more sauce than the recipe calls for, but that’s just personal preference. It’s a lovely way to get so many healthy veggies in a meal. Thanks so much for this recipe!
This was awesome although next time I’ll peel the eggplant. It probably won’t be so colorful and pretty this way but the eggplant skin was pretty tough. Otherwise, my husband and I both loved it and enjoyed it with some crusty French bread!
Another incredible recipe. You can’t go wrong with a budget bytes recipe! Ate this over brown rice and loved every leftover!
Do you think it would taste good with sweet peppers instead of zucchini? That’s what is in my fridge right now.
Yes, but the layering may be difficult since you can’t slice them in a similar way to the other vegetables.
Where do you shop for your ingredients? The mozzarella alone cost me $7 at the supermarket, and I bought the cheapest I could find.
This cheese was probably from ALDI. Keep in mind that prices vary quite a bit from region to region, store to store, and even day to day. Rather than comparing your prices to mine, compare them to what you usually spend on a meal. Having my prices listed here can help you see how individual ingredients affect the overall cost of a recipe, even if that cost is not exactly the same as yours. :)
Absolutely fantastic. I can’t stop thinking about how good this was!!
Can’t wait to try this! I actually purchased all these veggies from my local Farmer’s market this wknd so this is perfect!
This was absolutely delicious. Never bought an eggplant before and was taken aback by the interior appearance (is this right?!?). Everyone enjoyed it. Next time, I think I will be more careful about the quality of the marinara I use. I had some cheap sauce with additional vegetable chunks, and I think they overpowered the rest just a little bit. And the cheap sauce was too sweet. But overall, a keeper for sure. Extra cheese made it even better and more palatable for my kids.
Hi, just made this last night and thought it was great.
It was easy to make, thank you for such a simple but
great tasting recipe.