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Provençal Ratatouille

📍 France
⏱️Prep: 30 min
🔥Cook: 60 min
Total: 90 min
🍽️4 servings
Difficulty: Medium

Provençal ratatouille is the great vegetable stew of southern France. Aubergine, courgette, peppers and tomato are slowly cooked with garlic, thyme and herbes de Provence until soft and fragrant. It works as a warm side dish, but many argue it is even better cold the next day, when the flavours have had time to settle.

🛒 Ingredients

4 servings
  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 zucchinis
  • 3 ripe tomatoes
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 yellow bell pepper
  • 3 tomatoes for the base sauce
  • Provençal herbs, garlic, thyme, rosemary
  • Olive oil, salt, pepper

👨‍🍳 Step-by-step instructions

  1. Base sauce: sauté garlic and tomatoes for 10 minutes until sauce.

  2. Spread the sauce on the bottom of a baking dish.

  3. Cut all the vegetables into very thin slices (3mm).

  4. Arrange the slices alternately vertically in a circle over the sauce.

  5. Season with oil, herbs, salt, and pepper. Cover with parchment paper.

  6. Bake for 60 minutes at 160°C. Uncover for the last 20 minutes to brown.

💡 Chef's tip

The fine, uniform cut is what separates an elegant ratatouille from a vegetable scramble. A mandoline handles the job in 5 minutes. Slice everything to the same thickness — about 3 mm — for even cooking.

📝 Our take

Real ratatouille is not a vegetable stew — it is a visual and gastronomic composition where thin slices of courgette, aubergine and tomato are arranged in a spiral over a sofrito base. A mandoline is almost essential for uniform thickness. With time and care, it turns seasonal vegetables into something worth presenting properly.

🍷 Wine & food pairing

Provençal rosé, inevitably. A pale, dry Côtes de Provence is the most honest pairing you can make with this dish. A Viognier from the Rhône Valley also works beautifully.

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