Autumn Ratatouille with Cauliflower Ricotta Béchamel

Autumn ratatouille combines butternut squash, celeriac, and rutabaga in a garlic, sage béchamel made from cauliflower and ricotta. Comfort food worth gathering over.

Bored of the Thanksgiving usual suspects of casserolery? Want something to pair perfectly with this shaved brussels sprout salad ? Autumn ratatouille is where it’s at!

Our commitment to tradition and general I’m-not-sure-what-else-to-do-ishness often leaves a holiday table robbed of the most classic and delicious autumnal produce. In other words, really, another green bean casserole? While I love those little crunchy, fried onions as much as any North American, sometimes I want to feast on the wild side at the holidays. And by wild I just mean trying something new and in season. Enter rutabaga, celeriac (or celery root), and squash. Autumn veg too often forgotten at our holiday festivities.

But nothing says holidays better than rich hearty veg, baked until tender, in a creamy, sage-heavy sauce. Well that and lots of mulled cider.

The Idea Behind Autumn Ratatouille

A traditional ratatouille is usually made with thinly sliced summer squash, tomato, red pepper and eggplant all stacked together in a gorgeous circular pattern and then baked in a rich tomato sauce. So classic summer. I wanted to create an autumn dish with the same basic principle: thinly sliced veg, a gorgeous pattern, and all baked in a sauce. So for this autumn ratatouille I chose butternut squash, celeriac, and rutabaga for their varying flavor profiles and rich, hearty texture. They are also all very similar in size which makes that pretty pattern even easier to make uniform. #aestheticgoals

The Sauce

The fall is for richer, heartier foods. Tomato sauce is nice but doesn’t scream, “nestled by a fire with a cup of hot cider” too well. A creamy béchamel with loads of fresh sage most certainly does. But instead of a traditional béchamel, one of the 5 mother sauces comprised of flour, butter, and whole milk (add cheese and you have alfredo), I decided to make my own, POP KITCHEN version of béchamel.

I blended steamed cauliflower with a bit of ricotta, parmesan, loads of sage, ghee and garlic. The result is an extra creamy, bursting with flavor sauce that makes the richness of your root vegetables so much richer. If you are dairy free, this recipe is really easy to adapt and I included dairy free options in the recipe below to reflect that. This dish is also gluten free/grain free, which I know can be a real struggle for people during the holidays. Go cauliflower!

The secret to thin uniform veg

You guys, there is no way in hell I’ma cut all this by hand. Uh uh. Nope. All this slicing took me all of 5 minutes, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So here begins my attempt to convert you into owning a food processor.

Most standard food processors come with attachments for slicing and shredding. This little feature is your friend. It may not be worth it to haul old betty out to slice one vegetable or shred a couple carrots, but when there is a big job to do, the extra dishes is SO worth it.

I first peeled the vegetables with a knife. I know this seems daunting the first time you attempt to peel a rutabaga. But you CAN do it. All you need is a heavy chef’s knife and a cutting board with a wet dish towel underneath to keep it from sliding around. I’m going to leave you this youtube video because watching a rutabaga being cut is way easier than successfully describing it to you. And because I don’t have my own YouTube channel yet. You cut the rutabaga and the celeriac the same way. For the butternut, I just cut off the top portion of the squash, avoiding the seed pit. You can peel this with a vegetable peeler or a knife.

Once all your veggies are peeled cut them into quarters (I cut my squash into thirds to make it more equal in size to the others) and feed them through the food processor using the slicing attachment. The result: a heap of perfect, evenly cut veg.

Put it together

Once everything is sliced, use the same food processor to blend your steamed cauliflower. Make a pattern stacking the vegetables together and lying in a casserole dish. Then simply pour on the sauce, getting it into every nook and cranny. This casserole takes a decent amount of time to bake. Between 1 hour 45 minutes and 2 hours. The tender melange of autumn root vegetables and butternut squash enriched with a creamy, garlicky, sage laden sauce is so worth the wait.

A POP KITCHEN THANKSGIVING

As I mentioned in my previous post , I’m spending October creating my Thanksgiving dream menu. Last week was the salad , this week is the vegetable and next week is the hors d’oeuvres. Stayed tuned for the full menu. I am currently working on a killer turkey recipe that will knock the socks off a traditional roasted turkey. I am so stoked to share this menu and I really hope POP KITCHEN can be with your family at the dining table this holiday season.

SHARE THE #POPKITCHEN LOVE!

When you make this autumn ratatouille, at Thanksgiving or not, let me know! I absolutely love seeing your photos of POP KITCHEN recipes up on Instagram. Use the hashtag #popkitchen when you post photos of recipes you’ve made to your Instagram and tag @pop_kitch. I’ll share my favorite photos on POP KITCHEN’s account.

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Recipe

Autumn Ratatouille with Cauliflower Ricotta Béchamel

Ingredients

• 1 large rutabaga, peeled and cut into quarters
• 1 large celeriac or celery root, peeled and cut into quarters
• 1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into thirds or quarters depending how big the squash is
• 4 cups cauliflower florets
• 1 Tbsp ghee or butter, Diary free: pure olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp fresh sage minced, plus more for garnish
• 2 Tbsp parmigiano reggiano, Diary free: 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½ cup ricotta cheese, Diary free: ½ cup raw cashews soaked for 1 hour
• 1 cup whole milk, Diary free: 1 cup nut mylk
• 1½ tsp sea salt
• 2.5-3 qt casserole dish

Instructions

1. OVEN: Heat your oven to 350F/180C/4 gas.
2. CAULIFLOWER: While you peel the vegetables, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the cauliflower florets and boil uncovered for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the ghee, butter, or olive oil over medium heat in a small sauté pan and cook the garlic until bubbly and fragrant but not brown, about 1 minute. Drain the cauliflower and place it in a food processor or blender with the parmesan, ricotta, salt, sage, garlic, and milk and puree until smooth. The sauce should be slightly thinner than a warm alfredo sauce. Add more milk if it seems a little thick. Place the sauce in a spouted measuring cup and rinse out the food processor for slicing the vegetables. Pour some of the sauce over the bottom of a 2.5 or 3 qt casserole dish, just enough to coat the bottom.
3. SLICING THE VEG: If you do not have a food processor, you can definitely slice the vegetables by hand with a chef’s knife, but be prepared for lots of chopping. Try to keep the slices in uniform ¼ inch thick slices. You could also use a mandolin for thinner cut vegetables and a slightly shorter cooking time. Attach the slicing attachment to your food processor and feed each quarter of the vegetable through lengthwise so each slice looks about the same.(see image above)
4. ARRANGE: Make a pattern with the squash, rutabaga, and celeriac, stacking it in your hand uniformly until it is almost too large to hold. Place the vegetables with one flat side touching the bottom of the casserole dish and the other flat side touching the side of the casserole dish. The curved side should be facing up. Repeat this pattern until the vegetables go all the way around the dish. Repeat in the middle as necessary. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the arranged vegetables, being sure to fill in all the nooks and crannies. You should need to use all the sauce. Lay three sage leaves on top for garnish. Place it in the oven for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours or until each vegetable is fork tender and the sauce is bubbling in the middle (the squash will be done a little before the root vegetables).
5. BROIL: Once the casserole is done, turn on the broiler to high. Place the casserole on the second to top rack and let the top of the casserole caramelize or 5-6 minutes, keeping an eye not to let it burn.