This ratatouille galette is a summer produce showstopper

Come August, you’ll find farmers market stands laden with bright, juicy tomatoes, fresh zucchini and various nightshades in peak form, and somehow, they’ll all end up coming home with you. A ratatouille galette, with its flaky, buttery crust and layers of tender, roasted vegetables, is the perfect vessel for all that peak-season deliciousness.

Because the joy of summer cooking lies in its simplicity, this galette is assembled using store-bought puff pastry dough, preferably the all-butter kind. It’s one of the best ready-made shortcuts for producing an elegant dish with less work.

Ratatouille typically refers to the rustic Provençal dish of stewed eggplant, tomatoes and summer squash. However, in this dish, I lean into the version made popular by the 2007 Disney-Pixar film “Ratatouille,” where the most significant meal served is a confit byaldi, a more refined riff on ratatouille in which the vegetables are thinly sliced and arranged with care. It features the same core produce and flavors but with more finesse.

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Get the recipe: Ratatouille Galette

That same finesse makes this galette’s final product so stunning. Spread over a thin layer of zippy Dijon mustard, whipped herbed goat cheese fills the base before uniform and thinly sliced tomato, zucchini, squash, red onion and eggplant are shingled on top. This ode to summer makes for a gorgeous presentation and a delicious bite at any time of day. Although it takes a good bit of time, nothing is overly complicated, and the impressive result is well worth the effort you put in. (If you have a mandoline, it makes much quicker work of slicing the vegetables.)

When preparing this recipe, the most important step is salting the produce before assembling the galette. This minimizes the risk of a leaky final product. Be sure to have at least a few sheet pans on hand for salting the vegetables and baking the galette.

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One other important point to remember as you prep: When using frozen puff pastry, it’s important to fully defrost the dough before rolling it out, so it doesn’t crack or tear. Move the puff pastry from the freezer to the refrigerator at least 4 hours before using it. From there, use the pastry within 24 hours of defrosting. As you roll out the puff pastry, be sure to dust the parchment paper, dough and rolling pin with flour to prevent sticking.

To make it your own, I encourage you to play around with the tomato and squash varieties in this galette. It is an ideal canvas for most summer produce.

Get the recipe: Ratatouille Galette

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