Ratatouille Gratin

I have been thinking about ratatouille for a while. I looked up some recipes and was a little disappointed because I kind of expected it to be fancier... possibly because I saw Ratatouille and I believe everything I see in cartoons. So I decided to do a little twist on it and make it a stacked gratin. And I also left out the eggplant, because I wasn't at all interested in it.

Ingredients
zucchini
yellow pepper
roma tomato
onion
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt pepper
thyme
basil
rosemary
garlic
parmesan

Basically you can use any amount of these that you want. I went light on the balsamic because I didn't want it to overpower everything else. Cut the vegetables into uniform-ish pieces (1/2 inch thick, 2 inches square/round), mix everything else (minus 1/2 the parm) in a large bowl and then toss the veggies in the bowl.


I preheated the oven to 425 at this point (why do all recipes say to preheat at the beginning? I usually end up with a fully heated oven for 30 or more minutes before I need it!) Then I layered everything (vertical layers, not horizontal) in a glass pan and spread the rest of the parmesan on top.

I happened to have too much for my pan, so I crammed the rest into a little ramekin to make an individual portion. This one I topped with parmesan mixed with panko because it sounded delicious.

I pulled the ramekin out after 25 minutes and the big pan after 30. You could see the juices boiling in the bottom which always makes me happy. SCIENCE! I let them set for a bit (because they were scary hot) while I grilled up some chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon juice and some spices.

This is going to be made over and over again. I am absolutely in love with this. I feel like I was a little light on the flavors, turns out I could have gone heavier with the balsamic and spices, but even as is, I just loved this. The big dish was beautiful, and the strong parmesan flavor was perfect for the vegetables. But panko and parmesan in the small dish was a revelation. It browned up beautifully and tasted nice and crunchy with the softened veg.

I do think for this fresh herbs would have been stronger and more interesting. I have been thinking of getting a kitchen herb garden, but my kitchen window above the sink has a tiny sill and is painted shut. I will continue working on a solution for this.