By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 2 hours, plus cooling
- Rating
- 4(594)
- Notes
- Read community notes
In this buttery, rustic pie, chunks of eggplant, zucchini and tomato are roasted with olive oil until velvety soft, then covered in a cheesy, mayonnaise-spiked custard. Chopped olives scattered on top cut through the richness and give the whole thing a salty tang. It's the perfect next-day use for ratatouille, should you have some. Use it here instead of roasting the vegetables. You’ll need about 3 to 4 cups (enough to fill the pie crust two-thirds of the way up). You can parbake the crust, roast the vegetables and make the custard the day before, but don’t bake everything together until the day of serving.
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Ingredients
Yield:8 servings
- 1¼cups/160 grams all-purpose flour
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- ½teaspoon sugar
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into cubes, plus more for buttering foil
- ⅓cup ice water, plus more if needed
- 1large eggplant (about 1½ pounds), cut into ¾-inch cubes
- ½cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 5garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 1tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped
- 1tablespoon thyme leaves
- Kosher salt, as needed
- 1cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 1large white onion, sliced ¼-inch thick
- 1small zucchini or summer squash, cut into ¾-inch cubes (about 7 ounces)
- 1large egg
- ¾cup coarsely grated white Cheddar or Gruyère
- ¼cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ⅓cup mayonnaise
- ¼teaspoon black pepper, plus more as needed
- ½cup basil leaves, chopped
- 1small plum tomato, sliced ¼-inch thick (optional)
- 1tablespoon chopped Moroccan black olives (or other good black olives)
For the Crust
For the Filling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
477 calories; 39 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 17 grams monounsaturated fat; 7 grams polyunsaturated fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 585 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Make the dough: In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt and sugar to combine. Mix in cubed butter with your hands, pinching and squeezing the butter cubes (or use a pastry blender or food processor) until the largest pieces are the size of lima beans. Drizzle in the water a little at a time, mixing until the dough starts to come together into a mass. You may not need all the water, or you may need to add more.
Step
2
When dough is starting to hold together but is still somewhat crumbly, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and press and knead it together into a smooth ball. Flatten into disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Step
3
While dough chills, heat oven to 400 degrees.
Step
4
On a rimmed baking sheet, toss together eggplant, ¼ cup oil, 2 garlic cloves, 1½ teaspoons rosemary, 1½ teaspoons thyme and ¼ teaspoon salt. On a second rimmed baking sheet, toss together the cherry tomatoes, onion slices, 2 tablespoons oil, 2 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon rosemary, 1 teaspoon thyme and ¼ teaspoon salt. On a third rimmed baking sheet (or roasting pan if you don’t have any more baking sheets), toss together zucchini, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 garlic clove, ½ teaspoon rosemary, ½ teaspoon thyme and a large pinch of salt.
Step
5
Place all the pans in the oven (or work in batches if they don’t fit at once) and roast until vegetables are browned, tossing every 10 minutes or so; about 35 minutes for onions, tomatoes and zucchini, and 45 minutes for eggplant. Remove from oven and let cool.
Step
6
On a floured surface, roll out dough to a 12-inch circle, then transfer to a 9-inch pie pan. Crimp edges to make a decorative crust. Use a fork to prick holes in bottom and sides of dough. Chill for 30 minutes.
Step
7
Raise oven temperature to 425 degrees. Place pie shell on a rimmed baking sheet. Line dough with foil, fill with pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights, and continue baking until the dough is just baked through and barely turning golden on the edges, 5 to 10 minutes longer. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
Step
8
In a medium bowl, beat egg until well mixed, then fold in both cheeses, mayonnaise, a pinch of salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
Step
9
Scrape all roasted vegetables into a large bowl, add basil, and toss well. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Spoon mixture into the baked pie shell, then top with cheese mixture. Arrange plum tomato slices on top, if using, and scatter with olives.
Step
10
Bake until filling is lightly golden, about 30 minutes. Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving warm or at room temperature.
Ratings
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out of 5
594
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Cooking Notes
Michael
For heaven's sake don't use storebought mayonnaise.Roast the vegetable in a little bit more oil, rescue the loose oil and some of the roasted garlic cloves, chop the garlic cloves and add them to the egg yolk along with some lemon juice, slowly beat in the rescued, flavored oil, and call it aïoli.Then add the cheese, and the beaten egg white if desired.
L
Melissa, why roast all the vegetables separately, especially the tomatoes and zucchini, which cook the same amount of time? It seems like a lot of dishes to wash!
Patricia
Baked without the crust an excellent less work and low carb dish
Connie
Try Trader Joe's White Cheddar & Gruyere mixed cheese.
Linda
If you're not a professional cook -- and I'm far from it -- and decide to make this recipe in one day, start at 3 pm so you can eat by 7 pm. And get someone else do wash all the pans and bowls for you!
catsnip
What snobs! A little mayonnaise is a terrific thing! We southerners love Dukes!
BigGuy
Make the ratatouille and put it atop a good quality hero roll split open. It won't be as good as the pie, but it'll be more than good enough for a good dinner.
Richard
Thanks for the advice. Something about 1/3 cup added mayonnaise made me gag a bit when I initially read the recipe. A bit of additional oil makes a lot more sense to me...and just seems less cloying. The recipe, as it is, seems to get almost 80% of its calories from fat. This seems unnecessarily high to me.
luvssumsoup
Delicious! We are vegetarian so we're always looking in to pack in more protein. If I make this again, I would add a can of cannelli beans and 2 extra eggs. We added 1 extra egg but it could handle 2 extra.
Susan
GrillThe veggies outside. Better flavor, less oil
queenbe123
why not us a prepared crust? like from trader joe's or whole foods, or the super market? making a pie crust is not my thing.
Joli
I'm sure this has been addressed before, but putting the oven on 425 degrees in AUGUST is not my idea of summer cooking. You all must have very robust AC units or central air. Or a summer kitchen.
John
It's in Julia Child's original recipe for Ratatouille. It allows each vegetable to maintain its unique texture and taste. Important subtlety.
Katherine
The tomatoes release juices, which make the zucchini soggier and keep it from browning properly. The eggplant takes longer than the zucchini and tomatoes; it also drinks up any and all available oil, again affecting how the zucchini ends up. If dish-washing is a problem, consider lining your sheet pans with foil.
Jeanne
My husband does not really like vegetables. This sounded so good though that I decided to make it for us. He took a small portion but loved it and came back for a lot more. He said this was one of my best meals. It was a wonderful change from what I usually make for this veggie adverse man. Loved it.
Deb
Made this twice. The first time I made the dough, and the second time I didn’t have the time so used a frozen store-bought crust. Definitely better the first time, but delicious both times. I followed some of the others ideas and increased the eggs and added a bit of milk.
Maggie
I made this with an olive oil press in crust - easier, faster, and the flavor works well
Lauren
Out of this world. However, I went to save time by using a ready-made crust — please don’t do this! I have such a small kitchen I needed to prep all the vegetables in two batches, and after an entire day of this, was so exhausted I thought I would let the vegetables (w/o basil) chill overnight and would throw it in a shell for dinner.The difference between this filling and crust is night and day. Even if it would take several more hours, I will be following this recipe to the letter next time.
Bette
Has anyone tried making the crust using whole wheat or a combo of whole wheat and all-purpose?
lisa parrish
Use a prepared crust and double the vegetables. It would be fine to roast all together. Another option is to eliminate the crust.
Deb
Check cooking time and read directions carefully. Labor and time intensive. For one hour would be roasting the veggies on three different pans for 45 minutes total and stirring and putting back in every ten minutes and another hour could be just putting the pie crust in the pan, crimping the edges, doing the foil and pie weights, baking 15 minutes, taking away pie weights, put foil around edges, bake 10 more minutes. Then pour in all and baking 30 minutes. Doesn’t count gathering, prep, crust.
JK
I roasted all of my veggies together. It is less mess and just easier. Everything was still cooked perfectly. Try to spread them out so they dont get super soggy.
Andy in Iowa
Small tweak to consider: chop all the veggies ~1cm (1/2 inch) instead of 3/4. I also add a diced green and red bell pepper. After making this 5 times, we feel the smaller dice has a better texture.Great recipe - Thanks!
sb
So incredibly delicious!! But really a lot of time and effort and washing up. I think I would still make it again in spite of that! A really great option if you ever have vegetarian guests over.
Deb
Not necessary to use all those pans. I upped temp to 425 and did the tomatoes and Zucchini together. All great! Added extra egg. Everything else as is. Really delish!
John K
I have made this several times and love it. I use the store bought crust from Whole Foods. It’s better for this than the Pillsbury crust, which is sweeter. I like the flavors of a gruyere better than a cheddar, I think it adds more interest rather than punch.
Stacie
This was beyond delicious! I loved every bite and I'm so glad I wasn't too tempted by my frozen pillsbury pie dough deep in the dark recess of my freezer LOL. You really get a big payoff by making your own because you really need that rustic, homemade crust to pull through to counterbalance the tangy, cheese filling. I did cheat a bit however. I made double the egg, mayo, cheese mixture because I got nervous that it just was not enough. I'll make this again and again. THANK YOU!
Susan
While making dinner the night before you want to serve this delicious pie chop, roast and combine the vegetables and make the dough. Refrigerate the veggies and dough overnight. The next night while the pie shell is baking make the topping. Chop the basil and mix into vegetables. When pie shell is baked add the vegetables and topping and bake.
Doc R
Did almond flour crust which complemented the pie. Great dish.
julia
Hella good. We added 2 ears of sweet corn from the farmers market in with the tomatoes & onions at the end, and we used half sharp cheddar & half gruyere.
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