Zucchini-Tomaten-Auflauf (zucchini and tomato bake)
A quick, rustic bake where sliced zucchini and tomato are bound with a light egg and cheese custard rather than a béchamel, closer to a crustless quiche than a French gratin. It comes together fast, with none of the pre-cooking a cream-based gratin needs, though the trade is a looser, less rich result.
Prep15 min
Cook35 min
Oven190°C
Servings4
Christoph's quick zucchini and tomato bake, bound with an egg custard rather than a béchamel for a much faster, rustic result.
Ingredients
Written for a 26 × 20 cm dish
Units
Temperature
Servings
Bake
- 500 g zucchini, sliced 5 mm thick rounded
- 300 g tomatoes, sliced 5 mm thick rounded
- 100 g onion, finely chopped rounded
- 4 eggs rounded
- 150 ml milk rounded
- 100 g grated hard cheese rounded
- 5 g dried oregano rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- to taste freshly ground black pepper rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Heat the oven to 190°C. Scatter the onion over the base of a buttered baking dish. Arrange the zucchini and tomato slices in overlapping rows or a loose pattern on top.
- Whisk the eggs, milk, half the cheese, oregano, salt and pepper together. Pour evenly over the vegetables.
- Scatter the remaining cheese over the top.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the custard is just set with a slight wobble at the centre and the top is lightly golden.
Notes
- This bake comes together much faster than a cream-based gratin, since there is no pre-simmering step; the trade is a looser, lighter result rather than a rich, thickened one.
- Do not overbake looking for a fully firm centre. The custard continues to set as it cools; a slight wobble when it comes out of the oven is correct.
- Pat the tomato slices dry before arranging them, since very juicy tomatoes can make the custard slightly wetter than intended.
- It keeps for 3 days in the fridge and is good cold as well as reheated.
Ingredient substitutions
- Zucchini and tomato can be any similarly quick-cooking vegetables cut to a similar thickness.
- Grated hard cheese can be any good melting cheese.
- A little crumbled feta scattered on top is a good, sharper alternative to some of the hard cheese.
From Christoph Mayer