This Ratatouille Is The Best Way to Use Summer Veggies

Hey pals! Today we're making ratatouille with my pal Leslie Garetto. Leslie is a food stylist and culinary producer I met through Epicurious/Condé Nast and, as you'll see, an absolute delight! In this video, we're making her husband's family's ratatouille recipe... with a few cheffy twists.
Disclosure: While I was not paid to include them in this video, I received the García de la Cruz olive oil seen in this video for free and have an ongoing relationship with their brand, so this is marked as product placement. (Check them out here: garciadelacruz...)
Find Leslie on the internet: / lesliegaretto
Huge thanks to the crew on this episode for making it possible!
Producer: Amanda Broll
Director of Photography: Colin Jakubczyk
Find me on the internet:
/ emilyslamduncan
slamduncan.substack.com
Support the channel by buying my super cool official No Expert merch: my-store-ced2f...
Recipe:
1/2 cup EVOO, more if needed
3 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
3 sweet red peppers, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch strips
2 medium white onions, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, split (2 sliced, 2 grated)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 large heirloom or beefsteak tomatoes
2 small bay leaves, ripped in half
1 1/2 teaspoon salt (give or take...)
Freshly ground black pepper
Step 1:
Heat oven to 375 degrees
Step 2: Peel and slice 2 cloves of garlic. In a ceramic, round baking dish, layer the vegetables in a repetitive pattern. Starting with onion, then zucchini, followed by eggplant and finished with red peppers. Top with 3 tbsp EVOO, sliced garlic, rosemary sprigs, sprigs of thyme and 1 tsp salt. Cover with foil and cook for 40 minutes in the oven.
Step 3: While vegetables cook, prepare the tomatoes. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Score the bottom of the tomatoes in an X. Blanch the tomato until the skin begins to peel off the bottom, about 10 seconds. Place the tomatoes in an ice bath.
Step 4: Using a paring knife, peel the cooked tomatoes. Then slice into quarters. Using a sieve over a large bowl, seed the tomatoes using your fingers. Let the seeds catch in the sieve and the juice run into the bowl. Discard the seeds then small dice the tomato meat. Add diced tomato into the bowl of reserved juices.
Step 5: Finely grate or mince remaining garlic. Add garlic to tomatoes, along with bay leaf and a large pinch of salt. Set aside.
Step 6: Remove vegetables from the oven and discard the foil. Pour tomato mixture over vegetables, evenly coating as much as possible. Top with 1/4 cup EVOO (everything should have a good coat of oil but not drowning in it) a heavy pinch of salt and pepper.
Step 7: Cook for another 40 minutes (at least). Until veggies are soft and caramelized. When cooked, remove thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Finish with more salt and pepper. Serve warm or cold.

[@LilT2o00]

My favorite expert is back. Hope you're having a lovely start to your weekend

[@EmilyDuncan]

Thanks! You too!!

[@the-chow-hall]

Ok wow finally someone has a good explanation of why food tastes better the next day besides "the flavors meld together"! I was always thinking... "but why and how?" Now I know! Thanks you two! Great video as always!

[@EmilyDuncan]

You are so welcome! And thanks for watching!!

[@amandadeloff4278]

Looks delicious and love her suggestion of how to use it throughout the week! ❤

[@defaultuser1447]

Leslie was a great guest, and it was a fun episode.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Thanks!!

[@daroboff]

What an amazing video! I’d definitely use this recipe to melt the hear of a bitter restaurant critic!

[@EmilyDuncan]

😂😂

[@martinschulz326]

I love Ratatouille. Besides: It is here 3:45 in the morning. Still celebrating the Victory against Scotland in the euros (here in Germany). 5:1. All goals by german players. Yes. That for Scotland too.

[@EmilyDuncan]

😂

[@NicoleTraub-wp9bm]

Delish, favorite dish, favorite movie and favorite food maven Emily!

[@EmilyDuncan]

💕💕💕

[@maromania7]

This looks amazing!...and I have most of these ingredients on hand, I ate my zucchini but still have some yellow squash and calabacita...Screw it, it's midnight and I'm trying to stay up. Sounds like the perfect time for my first ratatouille! brb!

[@EmilyDuncan]

Nice!!! I’ll look forward to an update 😂

[@maromania7]

Almost forgot to come back lol. That was delicious! Perfect timing too, I was trying to figure out what to do with my eggplant since I forgot to get parmesan. my tomatoes didn’t come out right, but I don’t have ice so my briefly chilled water probably just wasn’t cold enough. Oh well, cooking for myself so sloppy tomatoes don't matter. Taste was A+, I might make this for my friends at our next get together!

[@EmilyDuncan]

I’m so psyched to hear this!! And yeah, what’s a little sloppy tomato between friends 😂

[@farronroboff255]

Thank you so much for this! Leslie is great.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Isn’t she just??

[@nothingtoseehere-p4y]

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I've never made Ratatouille but it looks really easy to put together.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Super simple! 😄

[@Sqwirle]

Family loved this. Made it last night :-p😊

[@EmilyDuncan]

Love to hear it!! 😄

[@kkattrap]

Extra shot of the bottles of Garcia de la Cruz Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Mild & Smooth Everyday Use and Premium) plus the evoo shots in the Socca makes me think of product sponsorship... If you're not sponsored you should get on it. ;) Oh I see they did send it to you (in Socca video)! That ended up being a very pretty dish with the garlic chips and tomato on top.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Haha, good eye, we're definitely trying to include nice product shots in the hopes of luring sponsors. Thanks for noticing!

[@hunterwilliams7090]

EMILY, I LOVE YOU! So happy to see you 🫡 looks stupid fucking good

[@EmilyDuncan]

YAY thank you!! 🥳

[@joshuajohnson2216]

Emily's back y'all

[@EmilyDuncan]

Every Friday til at least August!

[@joshuajohnson2216]

​@@EmilyDuncanYay

[@garryhammond3117]

This looks so delicious ladies! - Nothing wrong with vegetarian dishes (coming from a true conivore). By today's prices, it looks like about $40 of olive oil is required to make it "swim" - lol - Just kidding! - Thanks! - Cheers! Love Chef Frank!

[@EmilyDuncan]

Hahah I hear you! I think the actual written recipe calls for half a cup of oil, I wouldn’t use a pricey finishing oil here 😂

[@lindafreeman7030]

Can we make Garlic Shots a thing? I think it could hapen.

[@ashemaclean5545]

I genuinely thought Leslie Garetto was Carla Gallo (actress who plays Daisy on Bones) at first from the thumbnail 😂

[@EmilyDuncan]

I see it!!

[@fahmi_simin639]

When you gonna Collab with chef Yuji haraguchi making sushi?

[@EmilyDuncan]

I’m a big Yuji fan! He moved to Hawaii, which might make it a little tricky, but don’t count it out 😄

[@slevennwolf9751]

I'm sorry but, born and raised in Provence here and ratatouille isn't particularly orignated from Nice (they have their own version of it) and when this combination of vegetables called "sun veggies" are cooked like this in the oven we call it a tian, not a ratatouille which is necessarly a kind of ragu. But looks not bad, tomatoes on the top are a good idea because tians tend to be a bit dry :)

[@EmilyDuncan]

Aww shucks! Having never been, I was just relying on Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica not to fail me 🤷‍♀️ hope you can enjoy anyway! thanks for watching

[@robertthomsen4297]

is she single or does she have a twin? EMILY

[@pamelamyers2007]

My mom and her mother used to do this back in the 50s until they quit cooking. Nothing new here!

[@hunterwilliams7090]

Emily you got insta lol

[@EmilyDuncan]

lmao it's in the vid description! emilyslamduncan :D

[@Romi_Zii]

Leslie was so much fun. The full Thomas Keller Confit Byaldi is fabulous but is a bit long winded. Am going to see how much I can streamline his recipe building on Leslie’s method. 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🤍🤎

[@EmilyDuncan]

Love that! Let me know how it turns out 😄

[@Romi_Zii]

@@EmilyDuncanIt turned out faaaaaabulous! Added slices of baked Italian pork and sage meatballs to the sliced vegetables, slathered it in homemade marinara, topped it with Parmesan and Mozzarella and served it with polenta. Yum! 😋 Did a vegan version with baked marinaded tofu, was good but would have been better with cheese! 🧀😂🧀 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🤍🤎 Try watching Mystery Road for Aussie Police drama if you can find it.