For a long time, Ratatouille was a big fat fail in this house. Undercooked, overcooked, lacking in flavor, there was no good ratatouille recipe to be found. The usual reaction it elicited from everyone was something more or less along the lines of, “eh…”
Which is so wrong because that Anton Ego guy like, totally went crazy for it, and even a rat can make it apparently, so we didn’t know what that was about. In Tyler’s Ultimate cookbook, where you’ll find the best mac n’ cheese ever (yes, it does involve bacon) and maybe the best minestrone soup ever (yes, it does involve sausage), we tried to follow the man’s instructions, and always somehow ended up with either a sloppy undercooked mess of gummy eggplant and sad zucchini that made you want to cry with frustration or a cooked through, but relatively flavorless concoction (no offense to Tyler Florence. I still can’t figure out what we were doing wrong). In any case, I was ruined for ratatouille for a long time:
“Hey, what do you want for dinner?”
“I dunno.”
“We have some zucchini and eggplant. We could make ra–“
“Don’t say it.”
“–tatoutille.”
*points finger toward the door* “Get out.”
Well, ahem, that all changed today. Because we made this Roasted Ratatouille Pasta, and it was so deliciously delicious…we had to share it with you all. Plus, The Woks of Life is branching out. Despite our name, we don’t all sit around eating dumplings and tofu all the time. (If you thought that, well…we actually don’t blame you. There is a lot of tofu on this website).
ANYWAYS, the secret to this ratatouille recipe is roasting the tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and onion all together rather than cooking everything in a pot. AND quality tomatoes. We used cherry tomatoes here, because when they roast, they get all wrinkly and sweet and bursting with tomatoey flavor. We also added sun-dried tomatoes and tomato paste to really intensify those flavors. The pasta here is really like a bonus. Toss spaghetti with the ratatouille, fresh herbs, and parmesan, and it’s pretty amazing. But toast up a baguette and do the same thing…also amazing.
I have to say it again that this ratatouille pasta dish is amazing and so may of our readers have tried it at home and agree but if you happen to crave Asian flavors, then check out or Soy Sauce Butter Pasta with Shrimp and Shiitakes recipe, it’s the bomb also!
But first, for the roasted ratatouille pasta recipe, you’ll need:
- 2 cups diced zucchini
- 2 cups diced eggplant
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cups cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 sun dried tomatoes, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 8 oz. spaghetti
- fresh basil, julienned,
- fresh parsley, chopped
- Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combined diced zucchini, eggplant, onion, and cherry tomatoes. Make sure that all the vegetables are diced in about the same size as the tomatoes.
In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, minced garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, and 1 tablespoon minced onion (just grab a couple pieces of onion from that big bowl and mince it up. This minced onion nonsense is one of those things that my weird and rather nit-picky father did for this ratatouill, and I don’t quite have an explanation for why we’re doing it, but he would get mad if I didn’t put it in here plus we can’t really argue with the results so yeah. Yay run-on sentences!).
Add the dried herbs, salt, and pepper. Add this mixture to the vegetables and toss until everything is well coated.
Line a sheet pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper and transfer the veggies to the pan.
Spread everything out in one layer.
Place in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables once halfway through baking.
You want everything to be super soft. Falling apart. And wrinkly.
…the vegetables. Ha.
While that’s going, bring a pot of water to a boil and chop up your herbs!
Cook your spaghetti until al dente and toss with the roasted ratatouille, fresh basil, parsley, and parmesan.
Serve your ratatouille with spaghetti and enjoy!
This ratatouille recipe packs strong flavors from the oven roasted vegetables and when tossed with spaghetti or any pasta, it makes a delicious and satisfying meal!
Roasted Ratatouille Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups zucchini (diced)
- 2 cups eggplant (diced)
- 1 onion (diced)
- 3 cups cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 medium onion (minced)
- 5 sun dried tomatoes (minced)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 8 oz. spaghetti
- fresh basil (julienned)
- fresh parsley (chopped)
- Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combined diced zucchini, eggplant, onion, and cherry tomatoes.
- In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, minced garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, and 1 tablespoon minced onion. Add the herbs, salt, and pepper. Add this mixture to the vegetables and toss until everything is well coated.
- Line a sheet pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper. Spread the vegetables evenly on the pan. Place in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables once halfway through baking.
- Cook your spaghetti until al dente and toss with the roasted ratatouille, fresh basil, parsley, and parmesan. Serve!
Nutrition
Gina says
This recipe has totally changed my idea of ratatouille (basically unenthusiastic but such a cool name). I blamed the veggies for their Wlack of flavor even in the middle of summer. I added each veg individually, even sautéed each individually, and used every trick I read about for 30+ years, but was always underwhelmed.
This recipe is splendiferous. The paste is definitely the bomb. Combined with the roasting, it got rid of that dishwatery liquid! I will never ever make ratatouille any other way again EVER. Two of us wiped out the whole bowl of pasta and wished there were more.
My pepper grinder is totally lame so I subbed in a teaspoon-tipful of Asian chili crunch instead. Gonna do that again.
Definitely making a double batch next time and will try dropping an egg on it.
Sarah says
Hi Gina, this is such an oldie, but a goodie. So glad you enjoyed this. I had the same perceptions of ratatouille before making it this way. I’m definitely going to be making it this summer too!
Alice says
Hi, random comment since you posted this recipe two years ago—but I think the reason you originally had soggy ratatouille may be because you threw all the veggies together in a pot. They’re always soggy that way.
I’m French, and I was always taught that bad ratatouilles = chunky pieces all lumped together, while good ratatouille = small pieces or slices all slowly fried separately for a good 20/40 minutes (depending on the cooking time) BEFORE being combined with tomato, and then you keep cooking it. You’re probably not in the market for another recipe haha, but just thought I’d share in case someone was interested.
The way I do things is not totally traditional (I cut the veggies in slices and also added an extra step, which is pre-salting them). I use:
4 pans + 1 pot if you’re willing to do the dishes, at minimum 2 big pans if you have time (this isn’t a last minute recipe haha).
Olive oil!!
Salt
thyme + rosemary if you happen to have rosemary
one or two eggplants
two zucchinis
one yellow onion
5/6 cloves of garlic or more depending on what you like
half a green bell pepper, half a red bell pepper, and half a yellow one (or any bell pepper you happen to have lying around)
5/6 tomatoes or a pack of cherry tomatoes. It’s true the cherry tomatoes add a nice, fresh taste and usually taste better than store bought big tomatoes anyway. If you want to go for big tomatoes, I find that the best type is “cœur de boeuf” (beefsteak tomatoes?). If using cherry tomatoes, you only need to cut them in half/quarters depending on whether you would like them to keep or release their juice.
I cut the zuchinnis into thin slices, set them aside on lots of kitchen roll, and liberally salt them.
Same for the eggplant.
I let the veggies sit for 20 minutes or more, up to 30 minutes I guess, until they’ve absorbed some of the salty flavor and released some moisture.
Meanwhile, I cut the onion into thin slices, cut up the 5/6 cloves of garlic, and cut the bellpeppers into thin strips.
You can also prep your tomatoes by cutting them in wedges, but that’s low priority because tomatoes always go last.
Then:
I saute the onion in lots of olive oil with a sprig of thyme over medium heat, until they start caramelizing
I move on to saute the bell pepper in another pan (olive oil) with a clove of garlic + a sprig of thyme. I generally like to char the bell peppers a little bit before turning the heat on low and covering the pot.
When this is done, I saute the eggplant, in batches, in a big pan with garlic and lots of olive oil (olive oil is a recurring theme because this recipe is from Provence aka the South-East). Your eggplant slices should become soft and be full of the flavor of salt, garlic and olive oil.
Same process for the zucchini: saute the slices in a big pan with garlic and a sprig of thyme. Wait until they’re soft.
As you can see, this is a pan intensive recipe.
Check the seasoning for each vegetable /individually/. If any vegetable lacks flavor, add garlic or salt.
If every veggie tastes good individually, they will taste good together.
At this point, in your last big pan, if using big tomatoes: fry your tomatoes until they soften; if using cherry tomatoes, char them slightly.
Combine everything!
Cook everything together for at least 20 minutes over low heat. The legend says that old school grandmas from Provence cook their ratatouille for 8 hours in huge cauldrons…
French people will generally eat ratatouille in the summer because that’s when the veggies are in season. This dish is associated with sunlight, summer and good times because it comes from the South-East. So we’ll generally pair ratatouille with sausages (herb pork sausages or lamb merguez). Ratatouille is generally eaten with rice in my family, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it with pasta.
Like all lazy french people, my mom really likes to reheat ratatouille leftovers in a big pot for dinner, crack eggs over it and call it a night.
I hope that if anyone sees this comment, they will be inspired to try!!
Alice says
I got really carried away—also wanted to say that I love your website and have been making your dishes for my family and they love it!!
Sarah says
Thank you for all your tips Alice!
alimak says
Oh, I can’t wait to try this – roll on summer vegies!!!!!
Bill says
Hi alimak, this is one of my favorite late summer pasta recipes. Hope you enjoy it!
Sara says
I am kind of suprised you guys don’t add any bell peppers, I thought they were quite essential to ratatouille? I did add them & it was delicious! Love the recipe!
Sarah says
Bell pepper sounds like a great addition, Sara!