Baked Ratatouille with Goats Cheese

Transform the traditional ratatouille into a family bake with a layer of cheese sauce and crumbled goats cheese.

It makes a great late summer dish when peppers, aubergines and courgettes are plenty and full of summer flavour.

The sauce is delicious and can be made up to 3 days ahead and its freezer friendly too. The finished dish can be assembled a few hours before cooking and I have even assembled in the morning and cooked in the evening and it still came out perfect.

You can use 2 tins tomatoes if you don’t have a bottle of passata (tomato puree) around. I find having the half bottles (readily available) of passata useful for a quick tomato sauce or a brilliant pizza topping.

Feel free to use a mixture of colourful courgettes.

You can use a good gluten-free all purpose flour instead. You might need to adjust the milk from 400ml to 6ooml as some gluten-free flour blends might need more liquid.

Loved this with a good sourdough loaf and a simple side salad.

an ovenproof dish

• 6 tablespoons olive oil (more to drizzle over the top)
• 2 red onions, chopped
• 3 fat garlic cloves, minced
• 2 aubergines, diced
• 2 red peppers, white membrane and seeds removed and chopped
• 4 courgettes, thinly sliced (to arrange lastly on top of the dish)
• 2 tablespoons Spanish smoked sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 350ml passata (tomato puree)
• handful basil or parsley (leaves only), chopped
• 100g goats cheese

Cheese Sauce

• 400ml full cream milk, warmed (its important)
• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour (see note for gluten-free)
• 60g parmesan
• pinch grated nutmeg (opt)
• salt & pepper

1. Heat the oven to 200c.
2. Heat the oil in an ovenproof dish, add the onions and cook, covered for 15 minutes until the onions are soft.
3. Add the garlic, cook 3 minutes then add the aubergines and peppers and cook until soft, about 10 minutes.
4. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, paprika, vinegar, soy sauce, passata and tin tomatoes and mix well, simmer gently for 5 minutes, stir through the chopped herbs. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
5. Meanwhile make the cheese sauce, in a saucepan melt the butter, once melted add the flour. Stir to make a paste. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and simmer gently for 2-3 mins, stirring continually until thickened slightly. Stir in the parmesan and season with salt, pepper and the nutmeg if using.
6. Tip the ratatouille into an ovenproof dish, then completely cover it with the cheese sauce. Crumble over the goat’s cheese and arrange the courgette slices on top, overlapping each other and to form a circle on the top of the dish.
7. Brush or drizzle the courgette slices with oil and season with sea salt. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins until the courgettes are cooked through and starting to brown and the dish is bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 mins before serving. ENJOY!