Easy Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Herbes de Provence

Easy Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Herbes de Provence

Why You Should Give This Recipe a Try

I hate to admit this, but I am not a big fan of vegetables. I am also not a big fan of poor health, however, so I am always on the hunt for recipes to make vegetables more palatable. Believe me when I say, then, that this Easy Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Herbes de Provence is actually delicious and great way to get in your daily veggies!

Based on the classic French dish I’ve had in my mother-in-law’s house, this oven roasted version is, in my opinion, way tastier than the traditional ratatouille recipe. The same basic ingredients as ratatouille – a mixture of fresh tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, and red onion – get tossed with olive oil, salt, and herbes de Provence and dumped into a large roasting pan to cook down until they are jammy and flavorful. The process could not possibly be easier and the end result is a summery, vegetable filled dish you can enjoy even in the winter months. Eat your Easy Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Herbes de Provence as a delicious side dish, tossed over pasta with some Parmesan cheese, or used as a healthy filling for vegetable lasagna.

Some of the best features of this recipe:

Easy Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Herbes de Provence is a delicious way to eat multiple vegetables at once.

So simple to make! The vegetables only need a rough chop, meaning minimal prep time, and are tossed into a pan where they slowly roast for about 2 hours.

Versatile! While this recipe includes the traditional ratatouille vegetables, you can mix up the amounts and make a few substitutions as well.

Freeze an entire batch or some of your leftovers and use on top of homemade pizza, as a filling for vegetable lasagna, or over your favorite pasta.

As with all my recipes, this is a super simple recipe with no special equipment, no complex cooking techniques, and with ingredients you can get at any grocery story.

Recipe Ingredients

2 lbs Roma tomatoes

1 large eggplant

2 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

1 large red onion

3 bell peppers (any color)

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tsp herbes de Provence

Kosher salt or Sea salt

Helpful Tools

• ​Sharp knife
• cutting board
• large roasting pan/large casserole dish/large baking dish (9×13)
• Liquid measuring cup
• ​Measuring spoons
• Silicone spatula or very large spoon

Ingredient Notes

You can use other types of tomatoes in this recipe. Roma were available to me in winter, so that is what I used. You can also use regular tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, or heirloom tomatoes. Steer clear of cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes as they will pretty much disintegrate while roasting.

You do not need to peel the vegetables in this recipe, but if you find part of the eggplant has a high concentration of seeds, I would remove those.

You can use yellow onion in place of red onion in this recipe.

I like to use different color peppers in this recipe. I though a yellow bell pepper, an orange, and a red looked great, but as the taste isn’t affected, use whatever is available to you.

​I am not a garlic lover, but feel free to add two cloves of chopped garlic to the veggie mixture.

No herbes de Provence? You can substitute Italian seasoning or use 3/4 tsp dried oregano and 3/4 tsp dried thyme.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Wash the vegetables.

3. Remove a piece of the top and bottom of the vegetables. Clean out the seeds and membranes from the bell peppers.

4. Roughly chop all of the vegetables. You do not need to peel them.

5. Place all of the chopped vegetables into a large roasting pan.

6. Pour the olive oil over the vegetables and toss them with your hands to coat.

7. Lightly salt the veggies, toss again, and sprinkle with a little more salt.

8. Place the dish in the oven and let cook for one hour.

9. Remove the dish from the oven and stir the vegetables using a silicone spatula or large spoon. At this point, they will not have changed appearance that much.

10. Return to the oven and let cook for an additional 30 minutes. 

11. Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle with 3/4 tsp herbes de Provence. Stir and sprinkle with the rest of the herbs. Give the vegetables one more stir, being sure to come up from the bottom of the pan.

12. Return to the oven for 30 minutes, then remove and stir. At this point you are looking for the vegetable to be very soft and to have a “jammy” consistency. If this has not yet happened, return to the oven for about 30 minutes, checking regularly to be sure it does not burn. I needed an additional 30 minutes for a total cooking time of 2 1/2 hours.

Check out the printable recipe card below for easy to follow, step-by-step directions.

Storage

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Easy Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Herbes de Provence freezes well in an airtight container.

Tips & Trick

Don’t worry if the veggies are heaping over the top of the pan a bit. They will cook down quite a bit!

Be sure to keep an eye on the vegetables during the last cooking time. Things can go from perfect to burned rather quickly. You are looked for vegetables that are extremely soft and almost gooey (the cooking term is “jammy”), but not blackened.

With a French husband and me, the American, we eat a lot of modified French foods in our house. Some of our favorite recipes are Easy Spinach Quiche with Store Bought Crust, Easy French Comfort Food: Creamy Potatoes and Pancetta (Tartiflette), Ham and Leek Quiche, Salade Nicoise with Tuna, and Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Tart. All are easy to make but full of flavor!