Ratatouille Tart

Puff pastry and tomato sauce surround roasted eggplant, tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini for the ideal buttery flakey bite that's full of flavor. Underneath the vegetables there's delicious melted mozzarella cheese holding everything together. It's topped with nutty parmesan, olive oil and fresh basil. 

Serves: 4 people; makes 2 tarts

Time: 60-80 minutes

Ingredients 

• 1 medium-large size eggplant
• 2-3 yellow squash 
• 2-3 zucchini 
• 1/2 cup avocado oil (or olive oil) 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced  
• 1/4 large red onion, diced or 1/2 medium red onion, diced 
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil or butter 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• Fresh cracked pepper
• 1 package of frozen puff pastry sheets (each box usually comes with two sheets) 
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated
• 1 cup of your favorite tomato sauce 
• 2 plum tomatoes
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes 
• optional toppings
• olive oil
• fresh basil 
• parmesan cheese 

Instructions 

• Defrost your frozen pastry sheets in the refrigerator overnight. Or, place at room temperature until no longer frozen. Be careful to not allow the sheets to reach room temperature. 
• Preheat oven to 425F.
• Slice eggplant into 1/4 inch circles. Place eggplant slices evenly spread out on a wire wrack on top of a sheet pan. Sprinkle each eggplant slice with salt and allow them to sit for 15-20 minutes. The salt will help draw out the water in the eggplant. Once you start to see water droplets on the top of the eggplant, pat each slice dry with a towel to remove the water. The eggplant will oxidize slightly, but that's okay because we are roasting it. 
• While the salt is doing its magic on the eggplant, cut the yellow squash and zucchini into slices.
• In a large bowl mix together the cut yellow squash, zucchini and eggplant with 1/2 cup avocado oil (or olive oil), 1/2 teaspoon salt and a pinch of black pepper. It's a lot of oil, but the eggplant will soak up quite a bit. Once all combined, pour onto two separate baking sheets (you can use the sheet pan that once held the eggplant to not dirty another pan). Make sure the vegetables are lying flat and not overcrowded on the pan otherwise they will steam and not roast. Bake at 425F for 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables have color. Cool. 
• In the meantime while the vegetables are roasting, pour the 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or butter) in a cast iron pan. Turn on medium heat and sauté the diced red onion with 2-3 cloves minced garlic, pinch of black pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sauté until caramelized and soft. Be careful to not burn the garlic. Set aside and cool. 
• Cut plum tomatoes in 1/4 inch slices. Set aside. 
• Line two sheet pans with parchment. Place a single sheet of defrosted puff pastry on each parchment lined sheet pan.
• Taking one pan, gently mark the puff pastry dough with a knife creating a one inch border. Don't slice all the way through! This mark will act as a guide for your ingredients so you leave room for a crust. In other words, draw a rectangle inside your puff pastry sheet leaving a 1 inch border. Repeat with your other sheet on the other pan. 
• Pour 1/2 cup of tomato sauce on each puff pastry sheet. Spread out with a spoon and be careful to not go past the border you created. Repeat on other puff pastry sheet. 
• Pour 1/2 of the onion garlic mixture on top of the tomato sauce and repeat on other puff pastry sheet. Spread out evenly. 
• Top the sauce on each of the sheets with 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese. This will act as a binder to hold the vegetables. 
• Decorate each tart on top of the mozzarella with the roasted vegetables by carefully layering slices of eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and the fresh sliced plum tomatoes.
• Sprinkle 1/4 cup (or more if you like) of crumbled goat cheese on each tart. 
• Top each tart with a 1/4 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes, if you enjoy a little kick. 
• Place both pans in the oven at 425F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate 1/2 through. 
• Top each tart with freshly grated parmesan cheese, olive oil and fresh basil. Slice and enjoy! 

Recipe Notes: 

The ingredients above are split between two tarts. 1 cup of tomato sauce, means 1/2 cup tomato sauce will go on each tart. These tarts are perfect to use up any leftovers in the fridge. You can throw on leftover chicken or sausage. Or, top with various cheeses. Have fun with it! I like to roast more vegetables than the recipe calls for and use it to create wraps for lunch during the week.