Cooking With the Season: Tomato, Zucchini and Potato Gratin
Aug. 9th, 2009
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By Dana McMahan
FoodConnect Louisville
foodconnect.com@gmail.com
Cooking With the Season: Tomato, Zucchini and Potato Gratin
I have to confess. The novelty of the farm share has worn off. Last year seemed a bit more exciting with new challenges every week. This year feels a bit more like “Oh no, what do I do with tomatoes, zucchini and potatoes again this week?” And we haven’t been in a cooking mode this week after Louisville’s flash floods last week left us with a lot of cleanup in our basement. In fact, we didn’t touch our stove for about a week, until making pizza last night. I thought today we should make up for lost time and try to use up the tomatoes, zucchini and potatoes in one fell swoop.
With the heat index expected to soar over 100 today I decided to make dinner early, so as to not bake ourselves later in the day. I Googled my three ingredients and came across a few gratin dishes. None on their own sounded spectacular so I did what any reasonable home cook would do. I made one up.
It’s a bit time consuming what with all the slicing and layering, but it’s actually a very simple and straightforward dish, and a nice way to spend a weekend morning. And I feel quite satisfied to have used up the bulk of my share this week in one dish.
Here then, is my Tomato, Zucchini and Potato Gratin.
1 ½ lb tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 ½ lb potatoes, sliced
1 lb zucchini , thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup cream
1 cup mozzarella
1 cup panko mixed with ¼ cup parmesan
Butter for the baking dish and to top with
Thinly slice the potatoes and plate in a pot of salted boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes and drain.
Preheat oven to 400
Coat dish liberally with butter. Arrange a layer of tomatoes on the bottom. Layer zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes and red onion in whatever pattern pleases you most. Season each layer with salt and Herbs de Provence. About a third of the way through sprinkle half the mozzarella, and again at two thirds.
Pour cream over the mixture and bake about 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with panko, then dot with butter. Bake another 5-10 minutes until panko begins to brown.
I have to confess. The novelty of the farm share has worn off. Last year seemed a bit more exciting with new challenges every week. This year feels a bit more like “Oh no, what do I do with tomatoes, zucchini and potatoes again this week?” And we haven’t been in a cooking mode this week after Louisville’s flash floods last week left us with a lot of cleanup in our basement. In fact, we didn’t touch our stove for about a week, until making pizza last night. I thought today we should make up for lost time and try to use up the tomatoes, zucchini and potatoes in one fell swoop.
With the heat index expected to soar over 100 today I decided to make dinner early, so as to not bake ourselves later in the day. I Googled my three ingredients and came across a few gratin dishes. None on their own sounded spectacular so I did what any reasonable home cook would do. I made one up.
It’s a bit time consuming what with all the slicing and layering, but it’s actually a very simple and straightforward dish, and a nice way to spend a weekend morning. And I feel quite satisfied to have used up the bulk of my share this week in one dish.
Here then, is my Tomato, Zucchini and Potato Gratin.
1 ½ lb tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 ½ lb potatoes, sliced
1 lb zucchini , thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup cream
1 cup mozzarella
1 cup panko mixed with ¼ cup parmesan
Butter for the baking dish and to top with
Thinly slice the potatoes and plate in a pot of salted boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes and drain.
Preheat oven to 400
Coat dish liberally with butter. Arrange a layer of tomatoes on the bottom. Layer zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes and red onion in whatever pattern pleases you most. Season each layer with salt and Herbs de Provence. About a third of the way through sprinkle half the mozzarella, and again at two thirds.
Pour cream over the mixture and bake about 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with panko, then dot with butter. Bake another 5-10 minutes until panko begins to brown.
Dana has eaten her way from Inverness to Istanbul, and from Monaco to Morocco. A food and travel writer, she lives to explores the world and tell stories of foods discovered and meals devoured in far-flung lands. She once hand-carried a tagine across three continents in order to recreate a Moroccan feast, her backpack smells of spices, and she has been known to smuggle butter home from Paris. Her most recent adventure was learning all about the duck at Camp Confitt in Gascony, France. When at home in Louisville she dishes on restaurant news for her column in the Courier Journal.
Comments on this article
August 10, 2009
Wow, my in-laws just gave me the biggest zucchini I have ever seen in my life - this is giving me some inspiration as to what to do with it.