Garden Casserole

This week, Manatee and I dove back into cooking. Our first night, Monday, was a bit of a disappointment. Well for me, at least, Manatee loved it but I am also blessed with someone who would be content to eat salads and hard boiled eggs every night so he still thinks all my cooking is awesome (Yay low standards!). We made white bean stuff portobella mushrooms. I admit, I was a little overzealous in creating bread crumbs (my new food processor is so freaking cool!) so Tuesday night I had a baggie of fresh bread crumbs and about 2 1/2 lbs of fresh tomatoes from our CSA.

I did a little online research and found a recipe from Food and Wine magazine which I modified a bit (due to reviews and my complete inability to follows a recipe) and it was stupendous. This will clearly be a staple in our diet. Even the leftover white bean stuffed mushrooms tasted good with it.

Here are some pictures, one includes said leftover mushrooms. We of course added a salad and voila: a complete hearty and healthy summer meal!

Ingredients:

2 eggplants

3 zucchini

6 oz of feta cheese (we chose tomato basil fat free feta)

1/2 cup of TOASTED breadcrumbs (toast them until they are almost black- keeps it from being soggy)

2 1/2 lbs of fresh tomatoes (any kind)

1/2 cup of fresh basil (chopped)

1 shallot (minced)

Olive Oil

1. Slice the eggplants and zucchini length wise 1/3 to 1/4 inch thick. *If you want to skin the eggplant, go right ahead. I did not have the patience for it but the original recipe mentioned it.

2. Dice the tomato into 1/2 inch cubes.

3. Brush the eggplant and zucchini with olive oil and lay out on two baking sheets.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.

4. While it's baking, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Add shallot and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

5. Add tomatoes and cook for 1 minute Remove from heat.

6. In a lasagna pan, layer eggplant, tomatoes and then 1/2 of feta cheese and basil. Then zucchini, tomato, basil, and rest of eggplant and zucchini. Then rest of tomatoes and cover with remaining cheese and bread crumbs.

7. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

8. Take out and let the pan 'rest'. We did it for 5 minutes but it was probably 10-15 before you could actually get something resembling a slice.

It may not be pretty when you slice it but it sure does taste good.