MoNJ's tomato gratin is wonderful! A bit of advice for the kitchen renegade...follow the recipe.

M

marilynfl

Moderator
Just follow the damn recipe. There are reasons CI specifies sizes, timing and proportions and if you want this dish to work, you need to follow those. Trust me on this one. The amalgamation of simple ingredients results in flavorful bites of crunchy bread saturated with densely reduced and caramelized tomatoes. Throw in a hit of fresh basil, parmesan and side notes of garlic and your mouth will be sending a polite Thank You note, just like your mother taught you.

There's not much to this--flavorful fresh tomatoes and a crusty bread--so the potential to screw it up lies in every single step. Don't do it. Just follow the recipe and you'll end up with a dish that tastes like those first perfect bites of a pizza.

I reduced the recipe so here are my proportions:

6" Corningware square dish

baked in a toaster oven

Mine only baked for 30 minutes, not 45 minutes since there was so much less food in the baking dish.

1 pound of heritage tomatoes (cut to 3/4" pieces, weight after removing white, seedy core from middle, but skin left on)

4" of a La Brea 8" crusty baguette (1.5 C) cut into 3/4" pieces

1 clove garlic

3 TBL olive oil

fresh basil

0.6 oz of parmesan (I added a bit more at the serve)

The only step I slightly deviated from was saute-ing the garlic slivers until golden, then removing them from the pan to reduce the tomatoes. They were added back in with the toasted bread cubes because I was concerned they might develop a burnt taste. Possibly not if the tomatoes were exuding a lot of juice but I didn't want to take a chance.

https://finerkitchens.com/swap/forum1/273020_Made_this_tomato_gratin_the_other_nightwow_was_it_goodThe_smell_of_it_baking_

 
That looks terrific! So glad you enjoyed it. And you answered a question

I had in my mind if it would work transferred into a ceramic serving dish. I am making it again tomorrow for friends and would rather not put a frying pan on the table. smileys/wink.gif
I say it looks just as good.

Thanks for your review and photos too.

 
It smells very homey...and my tomatoes weren't even the best available.

Essentially, it's pizza without the mozzarella, but better than any pizza I've gotten here. It's crunchy and the tomatoes have a real depth to them.

But if you don't follow their timing and sizes, you end up with mushy "sauce bread" which is good in its own way, but not the same.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top