Zucchini Gratin a.k.a. Summer Squash Casserole, Grill-Friendly and Easy, Too

I wasn’t planning to make this, or any summer squash thing for that matter, but plans seldom affect what I actually end up doing. I’d gone to a small, off-day farmers market up the road from our place to pick up (or so I thought) some meat I’d ordered through a farmer-friend’s website. Only problem, I’d never clicked “submit” at the end of the online form.

So although I didn’t fetch the meat bits I’d planned to get, I did have the opportunity to peruse the half-dozen or so other stalls. It’s summertime now, and boy howdy, is it ever!

I bought cucumbers, onions, zucchinis in yellow and green, blueberries from twin teens, and a carton of sweet cherries to top it all off. Too much of everything, of course. Here’s just a sample of my haul… with evidence of afternoon espresso. I wasn’t planning to make summer squash gratin. But I sure am glad I did. Even though I burned the top (see below), it was so good that I ended up eating half of it for dinner and the other half for lunch the next day.

You can cook this summer squash gratin (a.k.a. zucchini casserole) on the grill to keep kitchen temps down on a hot day. Topped with seasoned breadcrumbs, it couldn’t be more delicious… or easy! No recipe is necessary. But there’s one below, anyway, just for kicks.

Sidenote: There is actually a national farmers market directory. Who knew? Well, maybe you already did. We all know now.

Zucchini a.k.a. Summer Squash Gratin Casserole

makes 4-6 side dish servings; 2 main dish servings

I made this in a 12″ cast iron skillet. If you go bigger, just use a bit more of everything. This recipe is so forgiving (see the food-waste-not notes below) that I feel guilty calling it a recipe.

Ingredients:

• olive oil, about four tablespoons, divided
• 2 pretty darn big summer squash (zucchini): 1 yellow and 1 green, if you’ve got the option
• 3 small-ish fresh onions with green tops, if that’s how they’ve come; or an ordinary yellow, red, or white onion
• a palmful of fresh herbs – oregano, basil, thyme, or a mix, stripped off any woody stems or such
• salt to taste
• pepper (optional)
• 1 C or so breadcrumbs – fresh, frozen, or shard-dry. They all work.
• 2 T. or so grated Parmesan (optional)

Preparation:

First off, you certainly don’t have to grill this. You can make it on the stove (same instructions as the grill) or even in the oven, in which case, any oven-safe dish will do. I’d opt for something not too deep to maximize the surface area for breadcrumbs. I’m bad that way, a sucker for crispy bits. If you’re going with the oven, set the temperature to 350 (no need to preheat) and check/stir or turn the veggies every 10 minutes or so until they’re soft. Then you’re ready to top and broil to golden brown perfection. Shoot, maybe you could just layer it all up at the start and bake. Experiment, and let me know how it goes!

Steps:

1. Slice your summer squash down the middle, lengthwise to  have a flat surface for slicing into half-moons of some rather consistent thickness. Slice the onions in a similar way and to a similar thickness. Slice all the way up the edible green, too (as much as looks fresh and delish).
2. Pour a bit of olive oil into the bottom of your skillet or pan.
3. Layer in your raw vegetables. Don’t be too precious about it – you’ll be stirring later. Oh, and sprinkle some salt on top.
4. Fire up the grill and set your pan on the heat. Yes, you don’t need to preheat the grill. I left it the (gas) flame on a not-so-precise medium-to-high and closed the grill lid over the pan.
5. Every 10 minutes or so, stir the veggies around so that they all get nice and soft. This took about 30 minutes for me. (While it was cooking, I prepped some left-over grilled hot peppers* I happened to have on hand. They’re not necessary, but I wanted to use them up. I scraped the soft bits off the skins, which had gotten papery, and stirred that into the softened veg before adding the topping.)
6. Meanwhile, in a small or medium-sized bowl, stir your breadcrumbs, herbs, ground pepper (optional), and Parmesan (optional) with the remaining glug (about 2 T.) olive oil, so that the breadcrumbs are lightly coated but not soaking.
7. Turn off the grill, and sprinkle breadcrumbs mixture over the cooked vegetables.
8. Put the pan under your oven’s broiler to toast the top. Keep an eye on it – it goes fast! (…Faster than I was counting on. I got distracted til it smoked. Note the rather dark – oy – but still delicious topping pictured here.)
9. Dish up and enjoy!

And here’s one that I didn’t burn… 🙂

Here are some food-waste-not notes on the ingredients, efficiency too. Think of this as your

All-star Eco-nomical Meter:

• If it’s air-conditioning hot outside, cooking this on the grill will keep from having to extra-air-condition inside (energy savings!).
• If you grew (no chem, low resource) any of the ingredients (herbs!) bonus plus, good on you.
• This uses up old bread. If you’ve got a wonky bit of loaf, drying out or otherwise not soon consumed, run it over a box grater or through the food processor. Use what you want here, then pack the crumbs into a jar, and freeze for future crispy bits!
• If there’s a farmer responsibly working some land near you, lucky you. Pay up and and know you’re supporting what the Buddha would call “right livelihood” (a.k.a. good work).
• *The “recipe” is hugely forgiving. Add stray bits of other veg – that half a bell pepper in the bottom of the drawer, the olive clove (sliced or diced) that you rubbed inside the salad bowl last night, the last gnarly slivers of sundried tomato still clinging to the jar in the fridge…
• Grate or slice hunks of other kinds of cheese (mix in or layer over the cooked veg before topping) that might not otherwise get any respect.
• Your prep requires no more than a single cutting board and small mixing bowl, neither of which get nasty-danger dirty. Cooking requires only a single skillet and a wooden spoon or spatula. I.e., cleanup is a cinch demanding little in the way of relevant resources (time, water, heat, soap). More time to boogie with the dog.