Two summers ago I staged (pronounced as stahzj-ed) at The Natural Gourmet Institute.  At the time, I really wanted to enroll in a cooking school, but I couldn’t afford the hefty admission fees, so I decided to enroll in the stagiaire program instead.  As a stagiaire you are essentially a kitchen assistant, and the idea is to earn credit toward a full waiver of fees to enter the Chef’s Training Program…by staging.  This meant preparing the mise en place (which literally means “putting in place”) by organizing the ingredients required for any given recipe.  The duties didn’t end there as we also had to help cook, clean, prepare snacks for the students, and pretty much be the “right hand (wo)man” for the culinary instructor. Unfortunately, I never completed the program as some life events occurred that summer in July that prevented me to do so…and, at the time, I couldn’t afford to give away free time in exchange for credit (they were 8 hour shifts after all). What I really needed was a paying job.  However, I have no regrets as I surely haven’t been resting on my laurels.  I found other ways to learn techniques of the kitchen.  Going back to the story, I remember there was one particular shift where I was assisting Myra Kornfeld‘s Summer Squash Sensations class.  One of the perks of staging is you get to eat whatever is leftover, and we are not talking food scraps, we’re talking an entire meal.  When I tasted her zucchini-tomato gratin (recipe here), I was awed by the delicious flavor.  I tried it at home, and–as is a natural custom of mine; doing things my way–I decided to make some tweaks to this recipe by leaving some things out and adding some things to it.

The beauty of this dish is you can use any variety of summer squash and any variety of tomato.  In my opinion, the more variety you have, the better.  What you see above are sliced sunburst squash, yellow zucchini, and vegetable marrow (the light green ones)…and below a cross between what I believe are beefsteak and heirloom tomatoes.

Cut each vegetable into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and sprinkle sea salt all over to draw out excess moisture, which helps concentrate the flavors and helps the gratin stay firm and not soggy.  Let the vegetables sit for as long as you can afford, but at least 30 minutes (the tomatoes can be a bit messier in this process so I placed the tomatoes on a rack, which I then placed on a baking pan to catch the drippings).  You will see beads of water come to the surface of each slice.  This is a good thing.  After 30 minutes to 1 hour, pat dry each slice.  This is where my tweak comes in.  The original recipe tells you to saute the summer squash until golden.  And while I have tried the original recipe before and it came out delicious, this time I wanted to coat the summer squash in Japanese panko bread crumbs.  So I created an assembly line of unbleached flour, egg wash, and panko breadcrumbs.  To the breadcrumbs I added a tablespoon of olive oil and a dash of salt and mixed well.  Then I coated each slice with flour first, egg wash second, and panko third (shaking off the excess of each dish) allowing them to rest on a rack.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place coated summer squash on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, turning them once, until crisp and golden.

Basil plays a big role in this dish.  Rinse a bunch of basil leaves and pat dry.  Then roll basil leaves and cut into thin slices.

In the meantime, while the summer squash is baking in the oven, grate some parmesan cheese (enough to sprinkle over two layers of summer squash and tomatoes).  Cut 2 cloves of garlic into thin slices lengthwise and set aside.  Now is the fun part.  After you take out the summer squash from the oven, lower the heat to 375 degrees.  Allow the summer squash to cool.  When cooled, layer summer squash into an 8-inch square shaped baking pan.  Top off with tomatoes, thin slices of garlic, and sprinkle with basil leaves.  Add parmesan and sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper. Repeat this same layering in the same order until you finish off with the top layer being parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle again with freshly ground black pepper and drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil.  Then cover with foil and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted, making sure it doesn’t burn.  Allow gratin to stand for a few minutes before serving.  As I mentioned before, I made a few tweaks to this recipe (which is the version you are currently reading).  I further tweaked this by not serving it hot at all.  In fact, I allowed the gratin to cool off completely before placing it in the fridge.  I served this dish cold.  Perfectly cool summertime meal.  Brooklyn, EAT your heart out!

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