There’s no better time than late summer to make our ratatouille recipe. With in-season eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers plus plenty of garlic and olive oil, the Provençal stew is a plant-based main dish that will please meat-eaters and vegetarians alike. It also gets better the longer it sits, making it an ideal candidate for making ahead for summer entertaining. This recipe makes about three quarts of ratatouille, so plan to have leftovers if you’re not feeding a crowd. Try tossing it with pasta, baking it with eggs, or simply freezing it and enjoying it on a cold winter day for a dose of summery warmth.

Why Ratatouille Should Be On Your Summer To-Do List

Ratatouille is a celebration of late-summer produce. Full of flavor and hearty without being heavy, it’s the kind of dish that improves the longer it sits in the fridge, making it perfect for a string of laidback lunches or easy entertaining. And while you can find the ingredients for it year-round at the supermarket, a ratatouille made in the dead of winter doesn’t compare with one made when each vegetable—from meaty eggplant to sweet bell pepper to mild-yet-earthy zucchini—is at its peak.

Like salad Niçoise and vegetable tian, this dish comes from Provence, the southeastern region of France known for its seasonal, vegetable-centric cooking and olive groves. As such, it features a hefty amount of olive oil—which adds a silky richness and keeps it from tasting too virtuous—plus there are plenty of herbs for an aromatic boost.

Ratatouille Dos and Don’ts

Don’t chop too finely: When prepping vegetables for ratatouille, aim for large, chunky pieces (roughly one-inch or so). It’s key to the dish’s rustic appearance and will ensure the vegetables don’t break down too much as they cook.

Do roast your tomatoes: This recipe leans on canned tomatoes, which eliminates the need to blanch and peel fresh ones. A quick stint in the oven concentrates their flavor and thickens the liquid, which keeps the ratatouille from tasting watery. Don’t be tempted to skip this step—it can be done while the eggplant drains and is worth turning on your oven for.

Do season as you go: Instead of waiting to season the ratatouille at the very end, add a bit of salt and pepper as you add in each vegetable. It will help bring out their natural flavor and make it easier to adjust the seasoning at the end.

Don’t overcook: Ratatouille should be more of a stew than a sauce. It’s ready to come off the stove when each vegetable is softened and tender—but not mushy. Taste it periodically as it simmers in step 4, erring on the side of underdone rather than overdone (especially if you plan to reheat it).

Honeynut squash is a modern marvel, a vegetable that’s younger than the iPhone, YouTube, and Olivia Rodrigo. Now at farmers markets and grocery stores across the country, typically from September to December, the honeynut squash as we know it was released around 2009 as a collaboration between the Plant Breeding and Genetics department at Cornell University and chef Dan Barber’s team at the upstate New York restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Their dream was a shrunken, single-serve butternut squash that needs little more than a high-heat roast to become absurdly delicious. This recipe starts there—then adds some creamy, tangy, spicy toppings to gild the lily.

In 30 minutes, the squashes emerge from the oven tender and browned, with little cups (where the seeds used to be) waiting to be filled. The answer here—as it is with cantaloupe halves for some people, you know who you are—is cottage cheese. Now is the time to get the good stuff. Our test kitchen is devoted to Good Culture, but if you can’t find that brand or another high-quality, whole-milk version, swap in another dairy, like plain Greek yogurt.

The rest of the dish can likewise be treated as a template. If honeynut evades you, opt for any winter squash and adjust accordingly. Cottage cheese and chili crisp would be equally gleeful atop butternut quarters or delicata rings (no need to peel either; roast until tender). If seasoned rice vinegar is in your pantry, use that and skip the added salt and sugar in step 3. Whatever the specifics, it’s a special-enough side dish to also make as a vegetarian main course.