About the eggplant, we find it helpful to coat the eggplant mixed in with a little water, which prevents it soaking up too much oil. We also used one orange pepper, which added to the colour really nicely, and was much more interesting to eat. Maybe this is a good thing, but next time I will try with two medium tomatoes. Also we only used 2.5 small tomatoes, and so were short on the sauciness other reviewers talk about. We use one yellow and one green zucchini, this was perfect. If you're using a red onion, maybe stick to half. This tasted great, but there was too much onion. Paprika to each layer adds some variety, as was recommended earlier. I add bread crumbs on top, and sometimes tomato sauce or condensed soup. I have also made this without cheese, and it's just as good.

Next time, I will add more cheese, maybe an extra half cup on top. I cut out a lot of the salt because of this. Some notes from our experience: These are our fav veggies! Because it is a little bland though, we serve it on couscous with black bean sauce. Who would have ever guessed that they would ever ask for something WITHOUT meat made WITH eggplant, green peppers, and squash? Hallelujah! I'll be making this again (certainly at my kids' request!).

It was fantasticly moist with a delicious broth. (It shrinks quite a bit from cooking.) I also sliced the tomatoes thinly and placed them on top, using Asiago cheese throughout. Remember to slice all the vegies THINLY (about 1/8') making the ratatouille cook through in 45 minutes in an 8 x 10' pan. I forgot to get the mushrooms, but added one yellow squash to the layers. I also used fresh parsley from my garden (2 tbsp). I used 3 large cloves with one medium-sized eggplant.

A couple of notes: be generous with the garlic. It went perfectly with a nice loaf of crusty sourdough bread. I made this once before (pre-kids) and don't remember it being this good. Wow! I was looking forward to trying the leftovers after reading these reviews, but there weren't any! My kids (thanks to THE movie) wolfed it all down. will definitely make this again with all the fresh veggies from garden. I served this over brown rice, which soaked up all that yummy liquid, and a nice Tuscan bread. As noted by other reviewers, 45 min didn't seem long enough, so I baked it for about 60, covered part of the time. I used a 9x13 baking dish, and it just barely fit. I also forgot the parmesan on some of the layers, but added some shredded mozzarella on the top for the last 5 minutes or so of baking. I did make a few changes: used 1 zucchini & 1 yellow squash, a whole 12 oz pkg of mushrooms,sliced, no green pepper (forgot to buy it, but don't really care for it anyway-may try red or orange next time), sprinkled a mix of chopped fresh parsley, basil & oregano over each layer, used a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes instead of fresh (but can't wait to try it with fresh tomatoes from the garden!), and added browned italian style turkey sausage for my meat-loving guys. Loved this! Aside from the chopping, very easy to prepare - popped it in the oven and had time to do other things while it baked.

Ratatouille for potsu de notsu