Italian Vegetable Casserole

My friend asked me to post this recipe.  She and I share our CSA bag every week and this is an excellent recipe to use up veggies.  We haven't gotten tomatoes yet in the CSA but I have gotten tomatoes from my own garden.

This is one of those recipes that I've used for years but don't actually follow.  It comes from the New Recipes from the Moosewood Restaurant.  I was a vegetarian for over 20 years and the Moosewood cookbooks are ones that I used over and over.  These days,  I don't turn to them too much as I prefer the vegetarian books by Deborah Madison.  The question is do I type the recipe as given or the one that I actually do?  I'll put it in as written and comment on what I actually do.  The main adaptation is I don't like eggplant, so I use more zucchini.

Italian Vegetable Casserole

1 medium eggplant

1 large potato

1 medium zucchini

4 fresh tomatoes

1 cup bread crumbs

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (2 tsp dried)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

black pepper to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cups grated mozzerella cheese

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Slice the eggplant crosswise into 1.2 inch rounds.  Place the eggplant rounds on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Bake covered with foil at 400 until they are tender, about 45 min.  Slice the potato and boil until just tender.  Then drain and set aside.  Slice the zucchini into 1/4 in rounds, slice the tomatoes about 1/2 inch thick and set aside.

Mix together the bread crumbs, basil and parsley.  In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the salt and pepper.

Oil a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and coat the bottom and sides of the pan with about a quarter of the bread crumbs mixture.

To layer the casserole, begin with all the eggplant slices.  Drizzle 2 tblsp olive oil over them and sprinkle on a quarter of the bread crumbs and a quarter of the mozzerella and parm cheeses.  Pour a quarter of the beaten eggs on top of the cheese.  Next layer all the potato slices.  REpeat a lwayer of oil, crumbs, cheese and eggs.  Layer all zucchini, followed by pil, crumbs, cheeses and egg.  Finally layer tomatoes topped with remaining oil, crumbs, cheeses and egg.

Bake uncovered at 375 got 45 min.  Allow casserole to sit for about 10 min before serving.

*****

Stacey's notes:  I don't use eggplant.  I just leave that layer out.  I don't boil the potatoes, just slice them thin.  For the egg mixture, it is just too hard to pour 1/4 of a small bowl of beaten eggs over each layer.  So, I pour the whole mixture over the last layer, the tomatoes.  I also don't measure the olive oil, just drizzle some over each layer.

Going into the oven (the mozzerella cheese is just sliced, not grated)