Well, the vacation I was referring to in The Pink Holiday came to an end this past Sunday. While I am so happy to be home, I am also thinking a lot about our special spot and our wonderful friends. I cannot wait to do it all over again next summer!
As I mentioned last week, I have been cooking a fair amount and the recipe I am sharing with you today has been on constant rotation in our house for the past month.
While on vacation, we were invited to a lovely dinner party and the hosts asked me to bring a vegetable to share for 10 people. I have never been asked to bring a vegetable, funny as that sounds! Appetizer, yes. Salad, yes. Dessert, yes. But, vegetable, not so much. Despite the fact that our summer spot has a farm with the most delicious butter and sugar corn you have ever tasted in your life, I was not going to pull up to my friend’s dinner party and ask her to boil multiple gallons of water for me!
So, I set out to find a dish I could cook completely ahead of time and keep warm until dinner. The main course was grilled swordfish.
Through social media (can’t remember which platform), I saw a post for a zucchini gratin and thought that sounded intriguing so I started to do some research. Apart from actually cooking, researching is what I really love to do. Reading recipes, reviews and comparing & contrasting ingredients and methods is really fun for me. You are probably thinking I am losing it, right?!!!
Ina has a zucchini gratin in her repetoire, but hers is made with a bechamel sauce that sounded heavy for the middle of July. I finally landed on Smitten Kitchen’s Summer Squash Gratin and since I love Deb’s blog and her recipes, I thought I would hone in on this version.
Deb’s is actually a riff on a recipe found in Suzanne Goin’s cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques. I had never read her cookbook before so I took it out of the library and ironically, Suzanne has a loose connection to our special summer spot. While a student at Brown University, she worked at Al Forno in Providence whose owners purchased tomatoes from our coastal community because they are just that good (I can attest to this). Goin says in the book that eating these particular tomatoes was a “life-changing tomato experience” for her. I guess it was fate that led me to this recipe, right?
I thought the summer squash could use some company, particularly as corn and tomatoes are starting to burst in Rhode Island by mid-July so I added them into my version. The corn is so sweet that you could literally eat it raw. Here is a picture of the farm stand I frequent that has an antique wagon holding the day’s corn. This butter and sugar variety here was named Latte…
Nutty gruyere cheese, shallots, an herbaceous Salsa Verde and some breadcrumbs round out the ingredients in all variations of the gratin. My version uses panko instead of homemade breadcrumbs and slightly more Salsa Verde. The results were delicious.
The large zucchini on the left was picked from my garden, but if you are buying them from a farmstand or market, do try to get the more slender variety like the ones next to it that will be seedless and have more flavor…
It’s not difficult to remove the kernels from the cobs…
But I do suggest you place the corn in a deep bowl and then you place the bowl in your sink and carefully run your knife down the length of the cob to remove the kernels. The kernels will fall into the bowl and the corn juice that misses the bowl can be easily rinsed away…
The squash is sliced on a diagonal into 1/8 inch coins (do your best, you just don’t want them too thick). A key to this recipe is to salt your squash slices and your tomatoes and allow them to sit for about ten minutes or so. This will release excess water from the vegetables so that your gratin isn’t soupy. Once they have sat for about ten minutes, remove the squash slices to paper towels and pat them dry. Do the same with the tomatoes but be gentle so their shape remains in tact…
Cherry tomatoes are like candy in the summer. With a sprinkling of kosher salt and maybe some freshly cracked black pepper there may not be anything better! A few of these came from our little garden too…
Once your vegetables are prepped, combine them in a bowl with the shallots, shredded Gruyere cheese (you can substitute cheddar if you’d prefer) and half of the panko breadcrumbs that have been mixed with some melted butter.
Next, mix up your Salsa Verde that will serve as the flavoring agent and will keep the gratin moist.
These are some herbs from our garden and since our mint is out of control, I was happy to have a use for it. By the way, the anchovy paste is optional and I did not use it because I didn’t have any when I first tried the recipe…
When I first made this, I could only find parsley and mint. The original recipe has some oregano and thyme. The herbs are somewhat interchangeable and I might even suggest you could substitute a store bought pesto that you loosened up a bit with some olive oil. However, the flavor of the parsley and the mint is so earthy and it pairs really well with the vegetables. (I gave the recipe to a friend and she just used a mix of herbs from her garden and parmesan cheese and her family loved it!)
Deb cut back the oil Suzanne used in her Salsa Verde and I have cut it back further. The reason I did this is because the recipe calls for using half of the Salsa in the recipe and then keeping the rest for another use. I don’t know about you, but 1/4 cup of a sauce in my fridge might get lost so I made the Salsa a little thicker by cutting back a little bit on the oil and it worked just fine. I like functional recipes!
Toss the Salsa Verde with your vegetables mixture and place everything into a 9 inch pan…
The version above was the double batch I made for the dinner party and below was the version I made this week for the blog…
And then sprinkle the remaining buttered panko breadcrumbs over the top…
Getting hungry?!!!
Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes and then cover it and cook an additional 20 minutes or until the squash is tender…
Originally served with grilled swordfish, I have subsequently served this gratin with chicken and beef. It is such a versatile dish and goes with almost anything. Suzanne paired hers with grilled veal chops and Deb prepared lamb chops to go with her version.
I am not going to lie about the prep involved here. It is a little more labor intensive than some vegetable dishes, so allow time, keep your entree straightforward and you’ll be all set. You can assemble the gratin ahead of time and bake it off an hour before you are ready to eat. You can also make it completely ahead and reheat it, covered, with good results. It is delicious leftover as well. And last night, we ate it cold with some fish (that wasn’t completely on purpose, but it was fine!). And if you want to make it with just summer squash, the original recipe called for 2 pounds.
I will always think of Summer, 2015 when I make this dish! I hope you make it part of your recipe collection too!
Until next time…
One Year Ago: Double Chocolate Loaf Cake (ironically, another adaptation of a Smitten Kitchen recipe!)
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Sunday Suppers at Lucques
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds summer squash (zucchini and yellow squash)
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 4 ears corn, kernels removed (2 1/2 - 3 cups)
- 3/4 cup thinly sliced shallots (1 very large or a few small)
- 1 cup grated gruyere cheese
- 1 1/2 cups plain Panko breadcrumbs
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- Salsa Verde
- Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves
- 1 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (optional)
- 2 small cloves of garlic
- 1/2 tsp. anchovy paste (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 lemon, or more to taste
- Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut the squash on a diagonal into 1/8 inch coins. Place in a colander and toss with a little bit of kosher salt. Set aside for about 10 minutes (you will want to put a plate under the colander to catch the water that is extracted). Halve tomatoes and place cut side up on a paper towel. Sprinkle with kosher salt and set aside for 10 minutes. Once 10 minutes has elapsed, drain squash on paper towels and pat dry. Lightly pat dry the tomatoes. Place squash in a large mixing bowl with tomatoes, corn kernels, shallots, and gruyere cheese. Set aside.
- Place breadcrumbs in a small bowl. In a small skillet, melt butter and cook over medium heat until it browns and smells nutty. Add butter to bowl with breadcrumbs and mix until completely combined. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then add half of the breadcrumbs to the bowl with the vegetables.
- Make the Salsa Verde by blending the herbs, garlic, anchovy paste if using, and capers in a food processor until it forms a paste. With the machine running, slowly add in the olive oil until you have a smooth puree. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add lemon juice to taste. You should have a little more than 1/2 cup.
- Add Salsa Verde to the vegetables and mix well. Place vegetable mixture into a 10 inch cast iron pan and press down to create an even layer. Sprinkle remaining breadcrumbs on top. (At this point, you can cover and refrigerate the gratin until you are closer to serving it).
- Place gratin in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. Loosely cover with foil and continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes until the squash is tender. Note - at the 25 minute mark, my breadcrumbs were always brown and crisp which is why I cover my gratin. If your breadcrumbs are not brown and crispy, you can leave it uncovered the entire time - everyone's oven is a little different!
Tips from The Kitchen Scout
The original recipe called for 2 pounds of summer squash if you'd prefer to make it with just one vegetable or want to make it when the corn has passed its peak!
I just made this last night (August 2016)! Fantastic summer recipe and I’m glad I can access ALL your recipes. Fun to be able to choose a recipe that fits the season. I made it in a baking dish as I had no cast iron skillet. It came out perfectly. Love all the veggies in it and I think you can add/substitute others depending on what’s available.
Yes! My web designer just helped me to create a new Recipe Index that is supposed to be more user friendly. I haven’t announced that on the blog but I really need to. Thank you so much for all your Kitchen Scout support!!! xoxo
My only comment is that I have followed the volumes for squash and tomatoes as stated in the recipe and have enough left over to make another whole gratin and I use a larger pan than suggested. So unless you want excess squash and tomatoe I suggest cutting volumes for both in half.
Hi Guadalupe. Sorry to hear that. I have made the recipe several times and it has always worked. It’s important to slice the squash pretty thin and to salt it to remove excess liquid and then pat dry. Also it is meant to fit compactly into the pan to insure a nice thick gratin so pressing the slices down as you go helps. I hope you give it another try and appreciate your commenting!
Is that top photo from Walker’s Roadside Stand in Little Compton??
Yes it is, Barbara!