Crisp Tomato Squash Bread Gratin

Crisp Tomato, Squash, & Bread Gratin 005

We've eaten out a lot this week, and not on purpose.  It just happened.  So it was only natural that we felt like we needed to have a healthy meal last night.  Why is it we stuff our bellies at restaurants, but not so much at home?  Anyway, thanks to my Mom and Dad's garden (shame on us, we did not even attempt to grow our own food this summer), we were able to have a meal with six, yes six different vegetables.

I was lucky enough to find Crisp Tomato, Zucchini, and Eggplant Bread Gratin in the Sept. '08 Food and Wine Magazine (This month's issue is full of great recipes.  I've already made three of them this past week).  With this recipe, I'd use up some vegetables and the inside of the bread from the salami sandwich.  When I was making the sandwich, I couldn't bring myself to throw out the extra bread taken from it's middle.  Here was my solution.

I followed the techinique of the recipe, but not so much the ingredients to the letter, so I guess I should write out my version instead of theirs.  You may get a different product with their recipe...although I'm sure it would be very good, maybe even better.  I didn't have eggplant and I used summer squash instead of zucchini.  I also used dried herbs instead of fresh.  (Oh, the horror). 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a colander, toss 1-2 small-medium sliced yellow squash with 1/2 t. salt and let stand for 20 minutes.  Drain well and gently squeeze out any excess liquid.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together 2-3 T olive oil with 2-3 smashed cloves of garlic.  Brush a bit of the garlic oil into an 8x8 inch square baking dish.  Tear one 7-oz loaf or rustic bread with crusts removed into 2-inch pieces and line the bottom of the baking dish with bread, fitting the pieces tightly together.  Brush the bread with more of the garlic oil. and season with salt and pepper.  Crush some dried basil over the bread.

In a medium bowl toss the squash with some of the garlic oil and season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle 2 small-medium tomatoes, sliced, with salt and pepper.  Arrange squash and tomatoes over bread, overlapping if necessary.  Sprinkly with dried thyme and basil.  Drizzle with remaining garlic oil.

Bake the gratin for about 40 minutes, until the vegetables begin to brown and the bottom of the bread is golden brown.  Remove the gratin from the oven and let stand until colled slightly, about 10 minutes.  Serve.