Ratatouille Recipe (French Vegetable Stew)

This ratatouille recipe is a mouthwatering French vegetable stew made with garden-fresh summer veggies like eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes. For the very best texture, we quickly cook them on the stovetop until they are perfectly tender (and not at all mushy!).

This is easily one of our favorite vegetarian recipes of all time. Our ratatouille is fresh, outrageously flavorful, and incredibly satisfying. We keep it more traditional and rustic with no baking required. We love serving this as a standalone summery meal with bread or pairing it with whatever we happen to be pulling off the grill (see serving suggestions below).

By using fresh peak summer veggies, you get the brightest flavors. They are briefly cooked together, which means they still have some bite. Every time we see someone take a bite (ourselves included), the immediate reaction is always…Wow, this really is delicious!

Key Ingredients

• Olive Oil: You’re going to use a generous amount of olive oil here, which makes this dish taste incredible and leaves you with a lot of flavorful liquid on the serving platter that is perfect for scooping up with bread. Use a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil. It’s worth it.
• Zucchini and/or Summer Squash: We usually make ratatouille with zucchini over summer squash, but both work here. Aim for two medium squash total: either one of each or two of the same, depending on what you have access to.
• Eggplant: These vary a lot in size. Look for one medium standard eggplant, or use Chinese or Japanese eggplant.
• Bell Pepper: Use one medium to large pepper. We love sweeter red, orange, or yellow peppers, but green definitely still works!
• Onion and Garlic: The onion is our favorite part because it turns sweet, keeps a little crunch, and picks up all the flavor from the other vegetables. Use sweet, yellow, or red onions. We use four garlic cloves in this recipe, which add a lot of flavor. You’ll mince them.
• Cherry Tomatoes and Shallots: We are grouping these together because you’re going to make a tomato-shallot topping for this recipe. It sounds fancy, but it’s super simple and adds so much to the dish. It’s one of the things in our recipe that genuinely separates it from others we have tried.
• The Sauce (shockingly good!): This is what makes our recipe so special. You’ll whisk tomato paste with lemon juice and olive oil, then toss it with the hot vegetables as they come off the stove.
• Parsley: Any fresh herb you have on hand will work here, but parsley keeps this classic.

How to Make Our Favorite Ratatouille

Cook the 1st batch of veggies (bell pepper and eggplant). This is a vegetable stew, but that doesn’t mean we should cook them so long that they fall apart or turn mushy. The name of the game here is to cook our vegetables until they are tender with a little bite left. The best way to do this is by breaking them into batches.

The first group of vegetables to go into a large, 12-inch skillet (or a wide Dutch oven) is the bell pepper and eggplant. These take the same amount of time over medium heat to turn tender. When they are, transfer them to a big bowl and let them steam in there while you cook the next group of veggies.

Cook the 2nd batch of veggies (onion, zucchini, and yellow squash). The next batch needs a bit higher heat, so increase it slightly, then toss them into the skillet. Cook, tossing them around in the pan, until tender and the onion is translucent. Scrape these into the same big bowl with the eggplant. The heat from this batch will keep the first warm.

Toss the hot veggies with our simple sauce. This is our secret weapon and why our ratatouille tastes so darn good. Plus, there’s no cooking required. Simply whisk together the tomato paste, freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Then, pour the tomato sauce all over the vegetables in the bowl and toss well. The heat from the vegetables will cut the raw flavor of the tomato paste and makes the tomato flavor pop, and the olive oil keeps things nice and silky.

Make the simple tomato and shallot topping. The final step is making a warmed tomato and shallot mixture that’s spooned all over the ratatouille vegetables for serving. It’s incredible in this dish, but take our advice and save it for other dishes, too.

Back at the skillet, warm some olive oil over low heat. Scatter the sliced shallots over the oil and let them soften. We are not browning or crisping them, just softening them so they turn sweet. Add the cherry tomatoes, then cover the skillet and let the tomatoes soften a little, as well. After a couple of minutes, turn off the heat and stir in fresh parsley.

Put it all together (and don’t leave any juices behind!). Spoon the vegetables from the bowl onto a platter, making sure to drizzle every single drop of liquid at the bottom. Then, spoon the tomatoes and shallots on top.

Storing Tips

• Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month. The texture will soften a bit more in the freezer, but it still turns out lovely. Thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating.
• To reheat, warm your ratatouille in a skillet over medium heat or in a 350°F oven until heated through.

What to Serve with Ratatouille

My immediate reaction to this section is to say EVERYTHING, but since you probably want a bit more context, here are some of our favorite ways to serve it: