For this version of the classic Provencal vegetable stew, you slice the vegetables into similar-sized strips, cook them briefly individually (you need two skillets), and then layer them together for a final slow cooking. This can be served either hot or cold.
I like to include one red bell pepper in place of one green bell pepper for color.
I used canned peeled tomatoes instead of the original recipe's requirement for blanching, peeling, and seeding the tomatoes because it's easier, and because I can only get good fresh tomatoes during a short period here in Massachusetts, while the ones in the can are always ripe.
You may see online recipes for a visually spectacular ratatouille with the vegetables sliced in even rounds and arrayed in a spiral or in concentric circles. This doesn't work out so well unless you have an infinite number of the vegetables so you can get everything of the same diameter, and it's messier than you would expect arranging cooked vegetables in the pan that way, but you have to precook them to get them all to the desired level of doneness. File that one under "looks good on paper".
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, and Julia Child
