This summer, my sister, Mary Pat, traveled to Italy on a bike tour. One of the advantages of biking through Italy is that you can eat anything and everything you want and not worry a bit about the calories. Turns out, my sister’s favorite dish was actually a healthy dish of local zucchini, tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella. It was served to her in a generous square like lasagna, but instead of noodles, the layers were made up of thinly sliced zucchini.
Once she got home, she started experimenting and re-creating what she ate from taste memoryand of course she told me about it! It sounded so simple, yet so delicious that I had to try it. I have now made it three times and decided to write it down and pass it along since there is still so much beautiful zucchini and squash available in the farmers markets. Better yet, in most towns, you can buy good zucchini all year long.
This is one of those dishes where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This dish has the simple flavors of Italytomatoes, basil and mozzarellalayered between thin slices of zucchini but the end result is positively addicting. Once you make it, you will find yourself making it again and again like my sister and me. It is savory and just rich enough to be crave-able but light enough that you feel like you are eating a dish straight from the garden.
My sister urged me to add tomato paste to the crushed tomatoes to make the sauce thicker and the tomato paste also makes it more flavorful and robust. I added some seasonings to compliment the vegetables including granulated garlic and herbes de Provence. If I had had a mixture of Italian seasonings, I may have used that instead. Either will work equally as well as they both typically include basil, rosemary and thyme. I also added shaved Parmesan cheese to each layer as it adds a “meatiness” or umami that contributes to the savory nature of the dish.