Vegetable Tian

Let me just start out by saying YUMMY!!! This recipe is fantastic. This is my first Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) recipe and I am extremely pleased with the results. I chose Vegetable Tian, which is a French Provincial dish from her "Barefoot In Paris" book. It is possible that I was a tad bit partial to the recipe before I even tasted it because I love all things Parisian. I travelled through Paris in 2002 and absolutely fell in love with the cityscape, museums and food. I dream about going back with Brad and Olivia someday so I can share my love of the city with them and discover so much more than my four day visit allowed me to discover. The Vegetable Tian ingredients are simple but when combined, they are pure and flavorful.

Ingredients:

Good olive oil

2 large yellow onions

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound medium round potatoes, unpeeled

3/4 pound zucchini

1 1/4 pounds medium tomatoes

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, plus extra sprigs

2 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush 9 X 13 X 2 inch baking dish with olive oil. In medium saute pan, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil and cook onions over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Spread onion mixture on bottom of baking dish.

Slice potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes in 1/4 inch slices. Layer them alternately in dish on top of onions, fitting them tightly, making only one layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme leaves and thyme sprigs and drizzle with 1 more Tbsp olive oil. Cover dish with foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Uncover dish, remove thyme sprigs, sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 30 minutes, or until browned. Serve warm.

Barefoot Contessa recommends that the potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes have roughly the same diameter so the slices look similar. I found it difficult to find tomatoes that were as small as the zucchini and potatoes so I ended up cutting each tomato slice in half. I layered the tomatoes with the rounded side up so the vegetables looked as uniform as possible. Barefoot Contessa also recommends Yukon Gold potatoes for this particular recipe and after tasting the dish, I second this recommendation. Yukon Golds are the perfect consistency and sweetness to compliment the tomatoes and zucchini. Brad only eats tomatoes in salsa and spaghetti/pizza sauce form so I was quite unsure of what his reaction might be. Much to my surprise, he liked the tomatoes! He decided that he doesn't mind the flavor and consistency of cooked tomatoes, which is a groundbreaking discovery as far as I am concerned.

In a nutshell, this recipe is delicious and I will prepare it as a side dish in the future. I served it with a vegetarian meat substitute stuffed with Gruyere cheese by a company called Quorn. They make many forms of meat substitute products including cutlets, ground "meat", burger patties, nuggets, roasts and stir fry strips. I love these products because they are soy free. I happen to have soy allergies so most meat substitute products have been out of my reach in the past. Between Field Roast and Quorn, my meat substitute prayers have been answered. I am including the Quorn website in my list of favorites for your review. Even as non-vegetarians, we often choose Quorn products above meat products. We particularly recommend the Gruyere stuffed cutlets.