Roasted Ratatouille (Easy Layered Stacks With Parmesan Crust)
The herbs and succulent vegetables of Provence, made famous in ratatouille, come alive in a new way. Sliced vegetables are stacked, drizzled with herb oil, and topped with a parmesan crust before they are roasted hot and fast, Ooh la la!
Servings: 4 as a side
Calories: 310kcal
Equipment
- 1 sheet pan
Ingredients
Sliced Vegetables - see NOTE
- 6 oz summer squash 1 squash depending on size or 2 patty pan
- 6 oz zucchini 1 zucchini, depending on size
- 12 oz sweet peppers 2 small-medium, any color
- 12 oz onion small-medium, any variety
- 12 oz tomatoes small-medium, any variety, including roma
- 6 oz kohlrabi (optional) 1 medium bulb- totally optional
Herb Oil
- 1 cup chopped fresh herbs basil, parsley, thyme, savory, marjoram, or others- see post and see notes
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cloves garlic minced
Parmesan Crust
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs sub any breadcrumbs, or make your own
- 2 oz feta crumbled
- 1/4 cup parmesan grated
- pepper to taste no salt needed due to cheese included
Serving/Garnish
- arugula to serve on top of
- edible borage and dill flowers to garnish
- lemon wedges to garnish/serve with
Instructions
Make the herb oil - 5-10 min.
- Simply wash, chop and mix the herbs with the oil, garlic, salt and pepper and set aside. Strip leaves from herbs with woody stems (i.e. thyme, savory, marjoram) but go ahead and chop through the softer stemmed herbs, since the stems are flavorful (i.e.basil, parsley).
Make the parmesan crust - 5 min.
- Crumble and drain the feta on paper towels for a few minutes to eliminate moisture (more so if packed in brine).
- Mix the feta with the crumbs and parmesan in small bowl and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 450 for 1/8" slices, or 425 for 1/4" slices
Make the stacks (approximately 12 stacks with 8 layers each) - 30 min or so
- Use a knife, mandolin or food processor attachment to slice the vegetables into 1/8" (1/4"max.) slices, keeping each vegetable separate once sliced.
- Make the vegetable stacks by gathering a slice of each vegetable until you have around 8 slices total. If using kohlrabi, put it on the bottom of the stack for stability. As you make the stacks use a spoon to drizzle a bit of herb oil every other slice or so. (each stack can use up 1 tsp of the oil- save a bit to drizzle over the top of each stack).
- If you want to line the sheet pan, use foil, not parchment paper (since you will use broiler at the end of cooking, potentially).
- Place each finished stack on sheet pan, spaced a couple inches apart, and drizzle another spoonful of the herb oil over the stack. Ending with onion slices on top is helpful as the ridges help the parmesan crumbs stay put.
- Place a couple spoonfuls of the parmesan crust on top of each ratatouille stack and press the crumbs onto the top so it sticks.
Roast the ratatouille stacks - 20 min.
- Place the sheet pan full of ratatouille stacks in the preheated oven and roast for approximately 20 min, until the juices of the veggies have come out, you can see they are succulent and the parmesan crust is golden.
- Optionally, you can turn the oven to broil for another 2-5 minutes at the end of cooking and watch closely for the golden crust and subtle char to develop as an additional step.
Notes
Vegetables - a total of about 3.5 lbs of vegetables is used, and you want to take the time to choose small to medium sized vegetables that will yield slices with similar diameters.
Fresh herbs- a plethora of fresh herbs is key to this dish (a dried Herbs de Provence can be used and will give plenty of flavor). If you use the dried blend use about a tablespoon in the oil. I highly recommend using up to 5-6 fresh herb types, either out of your garden, or if not, I recommend raiding the fresh herb section of your grocery store for at least 3 types (so as not to be wasteful, if sold in large quantities). Cooking with lots of fresh herbs gives so much flavor.
Nutrition
Calories: 310kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 344mg | Potassium: 942mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin C: 177mg | Calcium: 224mg | Iron: 2mg | Magnesium: 63mg | Net Carbohydrates: 21g