Love at first bite

It's been a busy week with more baking than cooking. My first real bread sales this week (14 loaves) plus preparing for a garage sale left without a lot of cooking time. I did, however, find the time to use up some of the gorgeous tomatoes and zucchini from my garden!! This was one of the best new recipes I have tried!

For the Zucchini and Tomato Gratin, you will need:

    * 2 tablespoons olive oil

    * 4 zucchini, sliced

    * 1 large clove garlic, crushed

    * 4 ounces thinly sliced mozzarella cheese

    * 4 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced

    * 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

    * 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

    * salt and freshly ground black pepper

I made a half portion of this recipe- but could have eaten lots more!!

I sliced my zucchini into rounds and browned on both sides. I didn't use much oil and I added my garlic after I flipped the zucchini so it wouldn't burn. I cooked mine for about 6 minutes, total.

I sliced two yellow tomatoes from my garden.

And then layered the zucchini, tomatoes and mozzarella into an 8x8 baking dish.

Top with fresh grated parmesan cheese, fresh basil, salt and pepper.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. NOTE- It is very important to turn your oven on in order for this to cook. It took me 30 minutes to realize I hadn't!

I ate the whole pan for dinner- and then realized the full recipe was only 2 servings, so I didn't feel so bad :) 

The author of this recipe does recommend using salt to draw some moisture from the zucchini before cooking. I didn't do that, but will next time as I did have a lot of water in the bottom of my baking dish. Delicious- just the same :)