Ratatouille Lasagne
This one is a proper showstopper and honestly one of our favourite things to make when we want to impress without stressing. It takes two classic comfort food hits, ratatouille and lasagne, and smashes them together into something that's greater than the sum of its parts. You get those gorgeous soft aubergine, courgette and pepper layers all wrapped up in herby tomato sauce, tucked between sheets of pasta, and it is deeply, properly satisfying. We keep coming back to this one because it feels a bit fancy but it's actually very doable, and it always goes down an absolute storm at the table.
Before You Start
- Preheat oven to 200°C
- Large lasagne dish
- Large skillet with lid
- Mixing bowl
- 8 lasagne sheets pre-soaked
Ingredients
- ½ tsp rosemary
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chilli oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 onions
- 2 red bell peppers
- 4 garlic cloves - minced
- 2 courgettes - finely chopped
- 1 aubergine - finely chopped
- ½ tsp oregano
- ½ tsp thyme
- 360g Passata
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 360g plant-based cream cheese
- 120g plant-based cheese
- small handful basil - shredded
- small handful parsley - shredded
- 3 courgettes - sliced
- 3 small aubergine - sliced
- 6 tomatoes - sliced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 8 lasagne sheets - pre soaked
Method
First, make the base sauce
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, add the onions and peppers and fry them, stirring constantly
- When the onions have begun to soften, add the garlic, salt and pepper and stir them into the onions
- When the aroma of the garlic has been released, add the courgette, aubergine, oregano, rosemary, tomato puree and thyme to the pan and fold them into the rest of the ingredients
- Stir the contents of the pan slowly and constantly until the courgettes and aubergines have reduced in size by ⅓
- Add the tomato sauce to the pan and and stir it into the rest of the ingredients
- Turn the heat right down, put the lid on and let the sauce simmer for 30 mins
Then, mix together the cheese sauce
- Put the “Cheese” Sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix them together
Next, assemble the first layer of lasagne
- Spread half the tomato sauce across the bottom of a large lasagne dish
- Lay down a layer of pre-soaked lasagne sheets on top of the tomato sauce
- Add a layer of the “cheese” sauce on top of the lasagne sheets
- Place one slice of tomato on top of the “cheese” sauce, right up against the edge of the lasagne dish
- Lay a slice of aubergine on top of the tomato (making sure you only cover half the tomato with the aubergine)
- Lay a slice of courgette on top of the aubergine (making sure you only cover half the aubergine with the courgette)
- Repeat this process until you’ve formed a ring of vegetables around the edge of the lasagne dish
Continue building the rings and layers
- Now build a second ring inside the first
- Now build a third ring inside the second so the “cheese” sauce is well covered
- Pour on the rest of the tomato sauce and spread it over the vegetable slices
- Add a layer of lasagne sheets
- Add another layer of “cheese” sauce
- Repeat these stages until you have built a lasagne in the dish
Bake and serve!
- Drizzle over chilli oil and sprinkle over salt and pepper
- Put the lasagna in the oven and bake at 200’C for 30 minutes
- Take the lasagna out of the oven and serve immediately with crusty bread and salad
Tips & Variations
- Make it richer: Henry always adds a generous spoonful of tomato puree and lets it cook out for a couple of minutes before adding the other veg. It gives the sauce this deep, almost caramelised quality that makes the whole thing taste like it's been cooking all day.
- Swap the veg: Ian has made this with chunks of butternut squash or mushrooms when he didn't have aubergine, and it works brilliantly. Don't be too precious about it, use whatever needs using up.
- Get ahead: This is genuinely one of those dishes that's better the next day. Assemble it the night before, keep it in the fridge, and just bake it when you're ready. The flavours have more time to get to know each other and it slices much more cleanly too.
Why This Works
The trick here is really cooking down the veg before it goes anywhere near the lasagne dish. Giving the aubergine, courgette and peppers proper time in the pan means they soften right down, the flavours concentrate, and you don't end up with a watery bake. The oregano, rosemary and thyme in the base sauce are doing a lot of heavy lifting too, trust us on this one, don't skip the fresh herbs if you can help it.