July 2, 2019

Ratatouille Galette

The reason I love galettes is the same reason why I generally prefer cooking over baking: precision. Unlike cakes and cookies, the beauty of a galette is in the imperfection. A simple, flaky dough, wrapped around whatever you want your filling to be. In the case of this recipe, which was inspired by all the beautiful squashes and zucchinis at the Roman markets – ratatouille.

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 stick cold butter, cubed
  • 1/2 cup water

Filling:

  • 1/2 cup of your favorite marinara sauce
  • 1/2 medium zucchini*
  • 1/2 medium summer squash*
  • 1/2 medium eggplant*
  • 1 large tomato, or 2 roma
  • 3 basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • salt + pepper
  • egg or cream for egg wash/cream wash

*try to pick zucchini, squash, and eggplant that are similar in diameter, for the ~aesthetics~

DIRECTIONS

  1. Measure out flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add in cubed butter, mixing butter, flour, and salt together with your hands while further breaking apart the butter into smaller chunks. 
  2. Starting with 1/4 cup of water, slowly mix in water until dough comes together (you’ll need more or less water depending on the humidity of your kitchen). Knead the dough out for 1 minute on a floured surface. Shape into ball and slightly flatten with your palm. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let sit for 30 minutes. 
  3. While the dough is setting, prep vegetables by thinly slicing the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and tomatoes. Tomato slices tend to be larger and thicker, so you can layer those a bit more infrequently than the others.
  4. Once the dough has set, roll dough out with a rolling pin to roughly a 12×12 round. Remember, it’s a galette so it doesn’t need to be perfect!
  5. Next, spread marinara sauce onto the center the galette, leaving about 1 1/2 inches from the edges. Layer sliced vegetables on top of the sauce in an alternating pattern. Lightly season the top of the vegetables with salt and pepper.
  6. Fold the dough up over the filling. Brush dough with cream or egg wash.
  7. Place in oven at 400˚F and bake for 30-35 minutes until the dough is a a beautiful golden brown.
  8. Mix thinly sliced basil leaves in olive oil and brush on top of the slightly cooled galette.
  9. Finally – cut, serve, and enjoy!