What happens when you take thinly sliced vegetables, layer them in a dish, add a rich red sauce, plenty of herbs, and a cheesy topping? You get this insanely delicious oven roasted ratatouille, aka “the vegetable dish that vegetable haters won’t be able to get enough of.” While this interpretation of ratatouille isn’t exactly traditional, I think you’re going to love it. And once you learn how to make ratatouille this way, you’ll want to make it all the time!
“Easy to make, beautiful to look at, really inexpensive, very healthy and MUCH better than my stovetop ratatouille. My husband and I devoured it. Yum with a capital Y.”
Vicky
Ratatouille is a classic French dish that’s rich, comforting, and perfect for sopping up with a piece of crusty artisan bread or ladling over a bowl of polenta. Like many traditional recipes, there are countless versions out there—and mine takes a bit of a twist.
Rather than stewing the vegetables together in a pot, I chose to make an oven roasted ratatouille, which is a common alternative to the stewed version. Not only is oven roasting the sliced vegetables super pretty, but it’s a little more hands-off than stewing vegetables in a pot, which I appreciate. I also added marinara sauce to the bottom of my casserole dish, which ends up mixing with the juices from the vegetables and creating the most delicious sauce (get some bread ready for dipping). Lastly, I topped with cheese, which definitely isn’t the norm for ratatouille, but it sure was delicious!
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Gather all of your ingredients: Preheat your oven to 400ºF. For this recipe, I used one small eggplant (about 1 lb.), one yellow onion, one yellow squash (about ½ lb.), one zucchini (about ½ lb.), and three Roma tomatoes. The eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes are the vegetables that will get layered pretty in the dish, while the onion will hide underneath in a base layer.
Slice vegetables: Thinly slice the eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. You want everything to be similar in height when placed in the casserole dish, so for pieces with a larger diameter, you’ll want to slice those in half (I did this for the eggplant and larger ends of the squash and zucchini). Aim for ⅛-inch thick slices.
Thinly slice the onion. Spread 1 cup marinara in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Sprinkle the sliced onion over top.
Layer vegetables: Layer the vegetables in the dish standing up on their sides, like cards in a card catalog (wait, did I just date myself??). They do NOT need to be perfect. Just start squeezing them in as best you can. It’s nice to try to alternate them in a pattern, but once you get toward the end, you might have more left of one type of vegetable, so just start popping them in there anywhere they’ll fit.
Drizzle 1 Tbsp olive oil over top. Sprinkle ½ tsp dried basil, ½ tsp dried oregano, ⅛ tsp freshly cracked pepper, and ¼ tsp salt on top of the vegetables.
Transfer the dish to the preheated 400ºF oven and roast for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle 1 cup of shredded mozzarella on top. Return the dish to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese melts and looks creamy.
Garnish and serve: Top with 1 Tbsp chopped parsley (optional), then serve! This roasted ratatouille is so delicious…and it’s just begging for a beautiful baguette to bathe in it. Mmmmm. You’ve got to spoon some of that sauce from the bottom of the pan onto your plate!
Closer look? So pretty. I ❤️ vegetables!
Oven roasted ratatouille makes a delicious side dish for grilled or roasted meat. Try it with juicy herb roasted pork tenderloin. Or serve it next to garlic butter baked cod, where the flaky, buttery fish balances the ratatouille’s rich texture and tangy tomato notes. For something equally satisfying, I’d pair it with juicy baked chicken breasts. You could also serve this as part of a vegetarian meal by pairing it with something like a rich and creamy Parmesan risotto or serving it on top of a bowl of polenta!
Store any leftovers in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to 3-4 days. I usually reheat individual portions in the microwave until heated through. You can also freeze this dish for up to 3 months, but the veggies will turn out much softer once thawed and reheated. Let your oven roasted ratatouille cool completely before storing it in the fridge or freezer.
Our Oven Roasted Ratatouille recipe was originally published 5/19/14. It was retested, reworked, and republished to be better than ever 10/27/25.
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