Ratatouille
Prep Time 25 minutes 
Cook Time 45 minutes 
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes 
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 aubergines
- 2 courgette
- 1 onion
- 1 bell pepper red
- 1 bell pepper yellow
- 5 tomatoes
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp Herbes de Provence
- salt and black pepper
Equipment
Instructions
1. Prepare the aubergines and courgettes
- Sweat the aubergine chunks in a colander with a generous sprinkle of salt for 20 minutes, then pat dry with a clean tea towel. This little ritual keeps things meltingly tender and never bitter.
2. Sauté the vegetables separately
- Heat half the olive oil in your pan over medium heat. Sauté the aubergine until golden, then remove to a bowl. Add a splash more oil, toss in courgette and peppers, and cook just until softened. Lift each into the bowl as they’re done. This lets each veg shine and avoids a muddy stew.
3. Make the aromatic base
- Tip in the onions to the pan, sweat until translucent, then add the garlic, stirring until fragrant. Tumble in those luscious tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Combine and stew gently
- Return your cooked veggies to the pan, shower over the herbes de Provence, and season with salt and pepper. Stir gently. Cover and cook on a low heat for 20–25 minutes, or pop the lot into a 160°C oven for even slower loving. Let it mingle, but don’t stir too roughly, the vegetables should keep their personality.
5. Finishing flourish
- Taste, adjust seasoning, and if you’re feeling the French spirit, garnish with fresh basil. Serve warm with crusty bread, or cold if you’re channeling breakfast on a sun-dappled Nice terrace.
Notes
- Ratatouille gets even better a day later, after the magic happens overnight in the fridge.
- It’s even excellent cold, piled on toast with soft cheese or as a base for eggs.
- Serving ratatouille with a freshly cracked egg (either fried, poached, or baked right on top) is absolutely traditional across much of southern France and is beloved as a rustic, protein-rich upgrade, especially when the dish doubles as breakfast or a light supper. It adds an irresistible richness and feels like a tapas-style nod to Provençal home cooking.
About this recipe
Ratatouille is Provençal soul food and this was just the best summer food when I was a kid! I grew up in Nice and when the markets were full of courgettes, aubergines, peppers, and tomatoes, it was time to make that beloved vegetable stew. My mother cooked it low and slow and it would fill the kitchen with that smell of olive oil and Herbes de Provence that I still find completely irresistible. If I had to choose one dish that takes me straight back to the south of France, it’s this one.
Where ratatouille comes from
The story of ratatouille starts in the kitchen gardens of Nice and Provence at the end of the 18th century. It was practical food born out of abundance: summer vegetables growing faster than families could eat them. The name itself is interesting, it combines the Occitan “ratatolha” with the French verb “touiller,” meaning to stir.
What surprises a lot of people is how recently the ratatouille recipe as we know it today was actually written down. The first recognisable recipe for ratatouille appeared in 1952 in a French transport magazine called La Vie du Rail. So while the dish itself is old, the standardised version with all those beautiful vegetables is actually quite modern.
It’s also worth knowing that ratatouille has cousins all over the Mediterranean. There’s the Catalan samfaina, the Majorcan tumbet, and the Italian caponata, all built on the same logic. Each region arrived at the same idea independently, which tells you something about how naturally these ingredients work together!
The ratatouille recipe debate
This is the conversation that can keep a Provençal table going for a while. Do you cook all the vegetables together or separately? The Larousse Gastronomique says that according to purists, the different vegetables should be cooked separately, then combined and cooked slowly together. That’s the traditional Niçoise approach, and it does produce a great result, because each vegetable keeps its own flavour and texture.
The practical version that most French home cooks actually make cooks everything together after an initial sauté of the aromatics. It’s faster, requires less washing up, and the result is more like a stew. Both are valid and both are genuinely good. It just depends on how much time you have and what you want from the finished dish. I’ve tried them both and as much as I love cooking, I’m not a fan of so much washing up, so you know I’m making it in one pot!
The extra egg
I happily learned this little extra from a friend, and later found out it’s actually the traditional Provençal way to eat it. We never did it at home when I was a kid, so I only discovered it later in life. The egg turns this ratatouille dish into a complete meal, and the yolk running into the warm vegetables as you eat is really something. It adds a richness that works beautifully against the acidity of the tomatoes. So I do recommend adding this special extra egg on top of your ratatouille, fried or poached, both delicious!
The movie
You probably already know about the 2007 Pixar film. If you haven’t seen it though, I command you to watch it on Amazon Prime. The film did more to spread the name ratatouille around the world than centuries of Provençal cooking had managed on its own!
How to cook ratatouille
Ratatouille needs a pot that distributes heat evenly, holds a steady gentle simmer without catching on the base, and is large enough for all the vegetables before they cook down. I use my beloved cocotte for this. The cast iron holds heat steadily throughout the long cooking process, the heavy lid traps moisture during the initial stage, and then it comes off for the final reduction when you want the sauce to concentrate.
How to eat ratatouille
We eat it warm as a main course with good bread and a cracked egg on top. But it also works well at room temperature as a side dish alongside grilled fish for example. It’s so good, you can even eat it cold the next day when all the flavours have developed overnight. That next-day version is honestly sometimes better than the first, so make more than you need! It reheats really well and keeps for several days in the fridge. I like making a big batch and keeping some in jars for when winter comes and I fancy a mouthful of summer!
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