Parmigiana di Zucchine
Parmigiana is one of my favorite dishes when it is made with eggplant. In different regions of Italy, this dish is also prepared from other vegetables, mostly zucchini, but also from, for example, artichokes.
Thanks to the fact that I was able to prepare this dish this year, my friend, whose family, as is typical for Estonians, has grown zucchini to a giant size. This kind of zucchini is perfect for preparing a similar dish.
Zucchini should be peeled and using a vegetable peeler, long, thin strips of zucchini should be cut. It is useful to lightly roast these strips at high heat so that the vegetable loses some of its liquid and makes easier of preparation of this type of food.
Preparation time: 1.5 hours
Level: Medium
Quantity: One large casserole dish, suitable for a smaller group
Ingredients:
One very large zucchini or a couple of medium ones, cut into thin strips
One medium onion finely chopped
3 medium cloves of garlic, finely chopped
250 g of mozzarella
300 g of ricotta
350 g grated parmesan or grana padano cheese
About 800 ml tomato passata
300 g of cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
A handful of fresh basil leaves torn into pieces
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
Black pepper and sea salt to taste
Preparation:
- Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters, finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the tomatoes, chopped onion, and garlic for about 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes are soft.
- Peel the zucchini and cut it into long strips with a vegetable peeler. Place these strips next to each other on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake in the oven at 220 degrees for 7-8 minutes.
- Mix the cooked tomatoes with the passata and line a high-sided baking mold with a couple of tablespoons of the tomato mixture.
- Place the stripes of zucchini on top of the tomato mixture and place new zucchini strips in the pan to cook. In this way, cook all the strips of zucchini that you manage to cut from a large zucchini until the seeds in the middle.
- Add dried oregano, black pepper, and sea salt on the zucchini layer, sprinkle the mixture with 1/3 of the amount of ricotta, add half the mozzarella balls or pulled pieces of mozzarella and sprinkle with 1/3 of the parmesan.
- Cover the cheese layer with the next layer of zucchini strips, which are covered again with the tomato mixture and cheese layer and seasoned. It is not necessary to put mozzarella on each layer, it is enough if there is mozzarella between two layers.
- Layer four layers of zucchini in this way, leave only Parmesan cheese on the last layer, and use ricotta and mozzarella for the bottom layers.
- Lightly cover the top layer of zucchini with the tomato mixture, season with salt and black pepper, and sprinkle a layer of Parmesan on top.
- Cover the zucchini mold with foil and bake at 200 degrees C for about 45 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the oven to grill mode, and let the Parmesan layer brown nicely.
- Use a sharp knife to cut a piece of the zucchini form, place it on a plate with a wide spatula and serve with the garnish.
Ready!!