Mar 27, 2025 4 min read Food Corner

Food | Ratatouille - Recipe from a Parisian insider

Took this photo in a market in 2020 - all the veggies for a ratatouille calling my name!

Ratatouille is one of my favourite recipes and I am surprised I am only just now writing about it in all my years of blogging and creating content online. It must be because it is so simple and so intertwined in my daily life that I tend to forget it is something worth mentioning.

I have a deep love for vegetables and I owe that to the way my mother eats (she always ate lots of veggies, from boiled to sautéed, in a soup or puréed) and my formative years living in France from age 14 to 25. I am so glad I have vegetables inmeshed with my life as I go through adulthood meeting friends who never eat them and are content with white and yellow foods. I. Just. Can't.

Ratatouille is also a great way to batch cook vegetables that are on your fridge, when you don't know what to do with them. I did my last ratatouille this weekend, as I was watching Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex Netflix show. She doesn't cook a ratatouille per se in the show but her love for a fresh harvest and cooking transpired and inspired me for a little bit. As I rarely cook - my husband Bruno does it every day - I had to jump right on it before the inspiration expired!

So here is my very simple recipe...

Ingredients (for 4 portions)

one small onion or 2 shallots, diced
2 curgetes / zucchini, diced
2 aubergines / eggplants, diced
2 big roma tomatoes or 12 cherry tomatoes, diced
half green pepper, half red pepper, half yellow pepper, all diced
garlic (2-3 cloves - optional)
vegetable or chicken stock
mushrooms, cut in fours (completely optional)
olive oil
salt (if you don't use stock)
freshly ground white or black pepper
bouquet garni or dried bayleaf or freshly cut basil

*A few photos taken when doing the recipe through the years...*

I take a stainless steel skillet (any pan or Le Creuset will do!) and I start sweating the stronger veggies for me, which are the onion and the peppers. I add a bit of olive oil and salt and mix it for about 5 minutes.

Then I add the eggplant and the zucchini and continue the process of mixing and letting it release all of its water.

Around 5 minutes later I add the stock and a cup of water (or a cup of liquid stock if I have those). Then I add the bayleaf or bouquet garni (or any dried seasoning I have in hand, honouring that it must be one used in Southern France which means... no dill okay?). I let it cook for a few more minutes and add another cup. I like my veggies really cooked so I leave on low heat for a total of half an hour but you can make the process quicker if you want more of a bite. If I don't have stock, I use salt to enhance the flavours. This can also be the time to add some pepper if you like. I do.

Closer to the end of cooking, I add the tomatoes and let it cook for 5 to 10 more minutes, depending on how tender it is. You can also use tinned tomatoes if you prefer yet their bitterness can call for a small spoon of sugar to dissipate. And this is it! A gorgeous and fragrant ratatouille.

Here is where you can add mushrooms, hence them being completely optional as they are not part of the recipe. I love mushrooms in my ratatouille, it makes it all the more earthy (and frenchy!).

To serve, you can eat with a slice of bread or a poached egg. Ratatouille is super versatile and nutritious. If you cannot taste it in France, try this dish at home and it will save you a ticket. Give it a go! Let me know in the comments if you make this recipe - and even if you venture making a ratatouille in the oven, which surprisingly, I have never tried doing myself!