The Bomb! Zucchini, Potato, Tomato Gratin with Pesto

Does this look good or what?! And it is. Easy, too, except for making it look pretty.

I'm not claiming "low-carb" for this one. I am claiming that this recipe at least mitigates the evils of potato starch (AKA carbs) with loads of zucchini, tomatoes, cheese, and basil pesto. It is basically a potato gratin but with half the potatoes. Ok, ok, it is not virtuous at all carb-wise, but I need to adapt to the husband factor here. He grew an entire row of potatoes this year, recently harvested them, and we are now looking at several big burlap bags of spuds hanging in the somewhat-cool pump house. What's a girl to do? Short answer: use zucchinis with potatoes in roughly equal parts in every potato dish to calm the blood sugar surge perpetrated by potatoes, and, at the same time, please the potato man. And if anybody's counting, subbing zukes for spuds also lowers the calorie count. 

Idea! You could make this without potatoes. I bet it would taste just about as good.

Pesto Gratin with Potatoes, Zukes, and Tomatoes 

Choose potatoes, zukes and tomatoes that are of similar diameter when sliced whole. In my case, all were approximately three inches around, give or take. I used a food processor to slice the potatoes and zucchinis, reducing a 10-minute tedious exercise to a few seconds. I sliced the tomatoes by hand. Use a 9X13 inch casserole dish. Preheat oven to 375. The recipe below serves eight as a side dish. 

• 3 potatoes, medium-sized, red or yellow, sliced. Russets not recommended.
• 2-3 medium zucchinis, sliced
• 2-3 medium tomatoes, sliced
• 6-8 tablespoons basil pesto, preferably without cheese added (if you're using commercial pesto, don't worry about the cheese.)  See photo.
• 1 medium onion cut in half and into slices
• Italian cheese blend, about a cup, grated
• salt and pepper to taste (I bet a dash of smoked salt would be great!)
• a few sprigs of fresh basil, torn into pieces to add the last few minutes of baking 

Directions

Spread the pesto onto the bottom of your casserole dish. Stir in the raw onion.

As you can see, pesto covers the bottom but isn't thick. I used four pesto cubes. (To make pesto cubes, use your favorite pesto recipe but leave out the cheese. Freeze in ice cube trays, then transfer to plastic freezer bags. My inexact pesto-making method is below.)

Four pesto "cubes" (that's a cube from my freezer there in the middle).
Together they equal to five or six tablespoons of  pesto. 

The slices are more-or-less the same size. I used a food processor to
cut the zukes and potatoes. 

Overlap sliced vegetables as shown below, using about the same amount of potato slices as zucchini slices but fewer tomatoes. Salt and pepper as desired. Cover the casserole with foil and bake at 375 for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, take off the foil and bake for another 15 or 20 minutes, until most water has evaporated and the potatoes are soft. Cover with grated cheese and torn fresh basil and return to oven until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Layer the potatoes, zukes, and tomatoes as shown, I used red and golden potatoes.

The finished product......a crowd pleaser. 

Pesto cube directions below.


PESTO CUBES

Peel 8-10 garlic cloves and process in a food processor. I use a Cuisinart. 

Amass enough fresh basil (stripped from largest stems) to compress into food processing bowl with the chopped garlic.. 

Pour at least a half cup of olive oil into the bowl, add salt to taste, and whirl it up. If it appears dry, add oil until the consistency is loose but not soupy. If freezing, spray ice cube trays with oil and fill. Once frozen, remove cubes to plastic bags and store in the freezer. If not freezing, add a cup of grated Parmesan cheese and mix well before adding to pasta, pizza, or crusty French bread. 

The cheese-less cubes are great mixed with soups or cooked with spinach for making Spinach and Pesto Frittata.