Hi guys! Now today I am going to share a recipe that I modified from one of my all time favorite childhood movies, Ratatouille! This movie topped my list for many reasons, one of which was that it had such an adorable little main character <3 And while I have had made ratatouille before, I decided to give it a little twist this time and shake things up. So I decided to stuff the vegetables in pasta shells and toss on a generous portion of cheese 😉
Ratatouille is a French dish that originated in the south of France and is a sort of comfort food, as it contains a plethora of hot and fresh vegetables. It is a hearty meal. Traditionally, the vegetables for this dish are sliced and then alternated in a baking pan, and then cooked together. But I decided to cube the vegetables instead into small pieces to make it easier to stuff in the shells.
Oh, the memories 🙂 I remember watching Ratatouille as a little girl and it quickly became one of my all time favorite movies, right up there next to Finding Nemo. And what was even better was that this dish is inherently vegetarian as well. I did not have to account for making a veggie meat substitute this time. I can’t tell you how many times I read Green Eggs and Ham and asked my mom for green eggs and ham when I was a toddler, before realizing that, sadly, green eggs did not exist and ham was meat.
But no matter, for ratatouille was not out of bounds for me! So even when I was little and did not have the concept of meat substitutes, I could enjoy this dish in all its glory.
This dish is seriously so easy to make. The most difficult part is getting all the ingredients together(seriously!). So without further ado…
Ingredients:
- Jumbo shells, 1 box
- 2 cups marinara sauce, homemade or store bought
- 1-2 cups quattro formaggio, shredded
- 1 eggplant, cubed
- 1 zucchini, cubed
- 2 tomatoes, cubed
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 bunch basil, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
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Instructions:
- Salt a large pot of water and cook shells according to instructions. Leave shells a little al dente.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Oil a large sauteing pan and cook garlic for 1-2 minutes until aromatic.
- Add onions and saute until translucent.
- Add red bell pepper, zucchini, and eggplant and keep stirring. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and basil and cook for 2 minutes. I like to add my tomatoes last because I don’t like to run the risk of them getting soggy.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Coat a deep oven safe pan with marinara sauce and cover with shells.
- Transfer one spoon of vegetables mixture into each shell.
- Top with layer of cheese.
- Repeat until all the shells and vegetables are finished.
- Top with an extra layer of cheese 😉
- Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese starts to bubble and brown.
- Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Enjoy!
This was such a low effort kind of meal and totally satisfying too. I would love to hear your guys’ experiences with this, so leave me a comment or question below!
See you soon!
Janani <3 <3
