Summer Vegetable Tian

 It may be September but it's still summer for a few more weeks. It's actually been hotter the past few days that it was all of August. I'm not happy about that, but I do like that summer produce is still available.  I first saw this recipe for a Summer Vegetable Tian on Pinterest from the blog Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Oh My!  All of the beautiful colors first caught my eye, and I pictured making it with some of the red and juicy Jersey tomatoes my dad picked up at a farm stand - there's nothing like a Jersey tomato!  The recipe is easy, but all of the slicing is a bit labor intensive. I highly recommend you use a mandolin to do your slicing, and that you slice the potatoes at about half the thickness of the other veggies.  Once the slicing is done, you get to do the fun part - assemble it! If you have OCD about things being in order and organized, you'll love this part. I had so much fun trying to make this look just right by perfectly alternating the ingredients and colors. But then I let it go a bit at the end since I had some extra veggies to "stuff" into the dish. It's still pretty though, right?  This was such a yummy and different way to enjoy these beautiful summer vegetables that we normally would have just grilled. I loved that the juice from the tomatoes actually ran throughout most of the dish keeping everything moist while giving it some of that sweet and tangy tomato goodness.

 

Summer Vegetable Tian

Source: Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Oh My!

 

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 medium yellow squash
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium russet potato
• 2 medium red potatoes
• 1 large tomato
• Dried thyme
• Salt & pepper
• 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese

 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400°. 
• Spray 8″ round or square baking dish with non-stick spray. 
• Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. 
• Thinly slice all the vegetables. (Note: I cut the tomatoes the thickest, the squash in the middle, and the potatoes the thinnest. and  like the original author, I also cut the tomato slices in half to have twice as many, and because the tomato slices were much larger than all of the other veggies
• Place vegetables in the baking dish vertically, in alternating pattern.  Lightly pour olive oil over the entire dish and season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Top with the onion and garlic. 
• Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes (Note - I had to let it cook a little longer - maybe 40 minutes).  Remove foil, sprinkle cheese over top and bake for another 15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.