Spread the hangry love....

This is a beautiful and versatile vegetable side dish. Thinly sliced Mediterranean vegetables arranged in rows and baked in a rich tomato sauce. Ratatouille Tian tastes and looks like summer.....but (thankfully) this is food you can enjoy all year round.

cooked ratatouille tian in a cast iron pan with a red handle.

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😊Versatile side dish
🥘 Ingredients
🔪 Instructions
📖 Recipe
🍅Other Veggie Side Dishes

😊Versatile side dish

Ratatouille tian is fresh, light and bursting with colour. It's a welcome accompaniment to rich dishes, such as slow-cooked meat for dinner or a quiche for lunch. It’s the perfect ‘bring a plate’ for a BBQ. It’s a convenient make-ahead dinner party side dish or starter. It can be really useful when you don’t know if your eaters have any dietary needs. It’s a 'safe' dish, yet is delicious and isn’t ordinary.

looks incredible
low-carb
healthy – packed with veggies
keeps well
make-ahead is recommended - it actually tastes better if made a day or two in advance.
gluten-free
vegan (*but doesn't have to be)

Choose your own adventure!

there's no right or wrong way to arrange the vegetables – rows or spirals, or a combo of the two. It will look good regardless!
any shape pan will do (see point above). A 30cm/9-inch round pan is equal to about 28cm/11 inch square. You would arrange the veg in rows in a square pan instead of a spiral.
you could pre-prepare in a disposable aluminium dish to take to a BBQ.
maybe group the same vegetables together for quicker assembly (rather than alternating).
add slices of cheese, such as mozzarella or halloumi to make this a meal, rather than side dish. You can slot these in towards the end of the bake, once you have removed the baking paper and foil. Serve with crusty bread. Delicious!

🥘 Ingredients

Rich Tomato Sauce
Mediterranean Vegetables - eggplant/aubergine, pumpkin, tomatoes and zucchini/courgette
Olive Oil
Fresh Herbs - thyme, basil & parsley

Use a good tomato sauce

Merely throwing in a can of tomatoes won’t cut it here. Use a good quality rich pizza/pasta sauce. Of course, I can highly recommend my Tomato & Basil sauce. I use this often - in my Vegetable Lasagne and pizzas – Chicago & traditional. It's a simple, yet delicious way to transform those canned tomatoes.

🔪 Instructions

We thinly slice pumpkin, eggplant (aubergine), zucchini (courgette) and tomato. The veggie slices are tightly packed upright in a bed of rich tomato sauce. We brush over herbed olive oil and bake until meltingly soft.

Pretty vegetables

Yes - slicing and arranging the veggies is a little time-consuming. Luckily, Ratatouille Tian ends up looking so pretty, you won't mind. Make sure your lucky eaters see it in its entirety! (before you dig into it). A mandoline (watch those digits!) makes light work of slicing some of the vegetables. It's particularly useful for the zucchini/courgette. You can achieve the same result using a sharp knife and a little patience.

We slice the veggies to a similar thickness, about 2mm.

Thinly sliced pumpkin, tomato, eggplant and zucchini rounds on a wooden board.

Making veg 'sandwiches' makes it easier to transfer groups of veg to the dish.

stack of sliced vegetables alongside already layered veg in a pan.

Don’t throw away your veggie scraps!

The weight suggestions for each vegetable provided here will limit leftover slices. It is inevitable that you will still have a few, even after a bit of patchwork filling in. You can keep any leftover tomato slices for sandwiches. The rest; toss in a little olive oil and seasoning, spread out in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven alongside the tian (you’ve got the oven on after all), for around 20 minutes until a bit crispy and caramelised. Chef’s treat!

Sliced vegetables on a wooden board alongside a cast iron pan with the veg arranged inside.

The colours are particularly vibrant before hitting the oven. They get uglier as they cook (but infinitely more tasty!).

brightly-coloured raw pumpkin, tomato, zucchini and eggplant slices layered in a cast iron pan with a red lid.

We generously brush herby olive oil over the exposed tops of the veg. The olive oil adds wonderful flavour. It also helps protect the herbs and veg from burning.

ratatouille tian dotted with fresh herbs.

The dish is first covered to allow the vegetables to soften without getting burned. The cover is then removed to encourage a little browning of the veg and thickening of the sauce.

cast iron pan with a red handle. A layer of baking paper partially peeled back to reveal the cooked tian underneath.

Enjoy at room temperature for best results

Once cooked, you can enjoy this Ratatouille Tian hot straight from the oven or even cold from the fridge (or maybe that’s just me?). I like to snack on generous mounds of fridge-cold ratatouille on corn thins. Perfect for those times when you fancy a little ‘something’ and fast.

BUT, it tastes best served at a temperature somewhere between very hot and very cold. How convenient! Great for casual entertaining; it doesn’t mind (*prefers) to rest for a bit. It's not 'needy', like roast potatoes, risotto and falafel. Which are all absolutely wonderful, but are best served as soon as you cook them.

📖 Recipe

Baked ratatouille tian in a cast iron pan.

Print Recipe

Beautiful and versatile vegetable side. We slice and layer colourful Mediterranean vegetables. We arrange them in a rich tomato sauce and bake until meltingly soft.

Ratatouille Tian looks and tastes like summer!

Before you start

If you are making your own tomato sauce, you’ll need to allow up to an hour to cook this first. You can prep the veg while this is simmering.

Prep Time1

Cook Time1

Resting time10

Total Time2 10

Servings: 6 (if served as a side dish)

Author: Hangry Miss

Equipment

A mandoline is handy, though not essential
Baking dish. Any shape will do. A 30cm/9in round pan (if you want to arrange in a spiral) is equal to about 28cm/11in square (for rows)

Ingredients

400 ml Tomato & Basil Sauce (or any other good quality pizza/pasta sauce)

Veg – these amounts are very flexible

200 g eggplant/aubergine one large one
450 g fresh tomato approx. 2-3 large
250 g pumpkin butternut (note 1)
250 g zucchini/courgette

Herb Seasoning

small handful basil leaves
small handful fresh parsley leaves
Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
60ml olive oil (4 tablespoons)

Instructions

Preheat Oven - to 170°C.
Baking Paper – turn the empty baking dish upside down and use the outline to cut out sheet of baking paper. Set aside the paper. This will cover the veg for the first part of cooking later.
Tomato Base - pour the tomato sauce into the dish.
400 ml Tomato & Basil Sauce
Slice Veg – peel the pumpkin (no need to peel the other veg). Thinly slice them, about 2mm thick.
200 g eggplant/aubergine
450 g fresh tomato
250 g pumpkin
250 g zucchini/courgette
Arrange Veg – create batches of sliced veg on a chopping board. Transfer these to stand upright in the tomato sauce, starting along the edge of the dish. Trim the slices if needed so that the veg are roughly the same dimensions. Don't overthink it; It will end up looking good whatever. If using a circular dish, continue the spiral to the centre, or fill in the centre with some columns. Squeeze in extra slices wherever they’ll fit (note 2).
Herb Seasoning – finely chop up the basil, parsley and thyme. Stir the herbs into the olive oil. Season the top of the veg well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Brush the herby olive oil over the exposed parts of the vegetables.
small handful basil leaves
small handful fresh parsley leaves
Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
60ml olive oil
Cover & Bake – cover the veg with the baking paper, then foil. Cook for 40 minutes.
Uncover & Bake – take off the layers of baking paper and foil and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes.
Rest – remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes or so before serving. Good at room temperature too. Allow to cool completely with the covers off until room temperature if transferring to the fridge or freezer (see notes below).

Notes

1 For most other recipes I buy Kent/Jap pumpkin because it’s lower FODMAP. I suggest butternut here. It’s more uniform in shape and easier to slice consistently

2 You’re never going to have the perfect amount of all your veg. Don’t throw extras away!! Keep tomatoes for sandwiches. The rest – toss in a little olive oil and seasoning and spread out on a baking sheet. Bake with the tian for around 20 minutes until a bit crispy and caramelised. Chef’s treat!!

Make Ahead/Freeze Instruction

This is a great make-ahead dish - fully prepped/ready to bake OR already cooked. Either way, cover well before storing (allow to cool to room temperature if it's cooked). Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days or freezer for up to 3 months.

If frozen, defrost first in the fridge overnight. Bring the dish out of the fridge while your oven preheats.

If the dish is not cooked yet, follow the instructions to cook as per the recipe card above.

If the dish has already been cooked and you only want to reheat - keep covered and cook until hot all the way through. This will take about 20 minutes.