Time is of Essence…

Sitting in my fridge for the past few days was an Eggplant, zuchinni, yellow squash, and a 6 pack of tomatoes. I was suppose to be using them to create my lunches for last week. I didn’t find extra time in my day to concoct those lunches I had my mind set on. So, those veggies were deemed to go bad. Eeks! I can’t let that happen!

“What can I make with those ingredients?”, I thought. And I remembered a recipe for roasted vegetable gratin in one of my Cooking Light magazines. Now, mind you I have a mass of those magazines. I scoured the 6 of those magazines that were sitting on my side table. No luck, no recipe was found. Dinner time is getting closer. What to do? The perfect solution: the internet. Ah, the blessed thing. At least this time it was. I found a recipe that consisted of all the ingredients I had on hand.

I also enjoyed this recipe because it allowed me to put my new Calphalon Santoku Knife to solid use (I love this knife, but watch your fingers!). Thinly slicing my eggplant, zuchinni, summer squash, tomatoes…

The results: I loved this recipe. It will surely be put away in my recipe box. No need to add a sauce base because the tomatoes in this dish provide the liquid while cooking. I think next time I will even try adding corn and some parmesan cheese. Maybe I will opt to a variation of this recipe by making a southwest gratin with corn, chilis… who knows. Leads to great creativity.

Enjoy this recipe. Yum!

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Tomato-Eggplant Gratin

375 degrees
Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

1 pound or more, eggplant

cooking spray

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons chopped oregano

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound, or more, tomatoes

1 pound or more, zucchini or summer squash

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice eggplant about 1/4-inch thick. Arrange in a single layer on a lipped cookie sheet coated with cooking spray. Spray eggplant with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt. Bake eggplant about 15 minutes, turning over about halfway through cooking time.

Arrange 1/2 of eggplant in a 2-quart casserole dish coated with vegetable spray. Arrange 1/2 of tomatoes, sliced about 1/4-inch thick) and 1/2 of zucchini (sliced about 1/4-inch thick) in layers on top of eggplant. Sprinkle with half of oregano, pepper, and garlic. Arrange the rest of the eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini in layers and sprinkle with the rest of the oregano, pepper and garlic.

Bake covered at 375 degrees for about 1 hour.

If freezing casserole, let cool, wrap tightly and place in freezer. When ready to use, place covered casserole in a 350-degree oven for about 1 hour, or until heated through and bubbly. Then proceed with recipe.

Uncover casserole and sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake another 10 minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.