More Summer Cooking

It’s the peak of summer vegetable season, so I’ve been doing my best to find creative and delicious recipes for all of those fresh tomatoes, summer squash, eggplants, and herbs.

On Monday I decided to give this recipe for Summer Vegetable Gratin, originally published in Cook’s Illustrated. I knew that it would take a while to prepare, so I planned it for a day when I had plenty of time.

Although not difficult to make, it’s definitely time-consuming. I didn’t actually time it, but it took nearly 2 hours from when I started until it was ready to eat. But about half of that is baking and resting time.

I always judge recipes by how much I like it in proportion to the time and effort it took to make. If it takes a lot of time, effort, and/or clean-up, it had better be incredibly good. On the other hand, if it’s really quick and easy, I don’t mind if isn’t the most fabulous recipe ever, as long as it’s reasonably good.

While making this dish, I kept thinking that it had better be pretty darn good to be worth the time, and I wasn’t too sure that it would be.

But the result? Worth every minute. It was fabulous.

I did make a few minor changes – I only had a little over a pound of zucchini and yellow squash, so I added in some sliced eggplant to make a total of two pounds. I only used one onion instead of two, and since I didn’t have any shallots, I used some fresh chopped garlic chives from the garden. The basil and thyme were both fresh from my garden, and I think using fresh herbs in this recipe makes a big difference. Don’t be tempted to skip the process of draining the vegetables – you don’t want it to be soggy.

The recipe definitely passed my work-to-flavor ratio, and I’d certainly make it again.

It was delicious served with this special treat – Syrah wine made from grapes grown by a friend of ours (hence the lack of label). Wow. I’d buy a case of this if I could. Guy knows how to grow grapes. And his winemaker friend knows how to make wine.