Mixed vegetable parmigiana

It was good to have Marigold back this weekend. Having said that, it won’t be long until she is back for good!

This dish came about from the combined effort of Dan, Marigold and myself due to the he mammoth quantities of vegetables involved. I would certainly only recommend this recipe if you have lots of willing hands to chop and lots of oven and/or hob space to cook all the vegetables. However if you do, I can vouch for the end result: it was light, tasty and interesting and this photograph doesn’t do it justice. As none of us for particularly ravenous, we ate it on its own but actually it would have been improved by some nice bread or rice to soak it up.

This recipe is adapted from a melanzane parmigiana recipe.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2 garlic cloves , thinly sliced

2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

1 cinnamon stick

1 small bunch basil , shredded

1 aubergine

3 courgettes

some mushrooms

2 balls mozzarella , sliced

a handful grated Parmesan 

100g bread crumbs

some pine nuts

1.     Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan, add the garlic and gently sizzle for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cinnamon and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened. Stir in the basil and season.

2.     Slice the vegetables lengthways about 1/2cm thick. Brush both sides with oil, season and griddle/fry or stick in the oven, turning a few times until completely tender. It's important to get the vegetables as tender as possible, so give it time.

3.     Remove the cinnamon stick and put a few spoonfuls of the sauce in the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Cover with the vegetables and mozzarella then repeat, ending with a thin layer of sauce (you'll have roughly 3-4 layers). Sprinkle with Parmesan, bread crumbs and pine nuts and bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and golden.