Got cheese? Got it made!

   The other evening a friend and I made arrangements to throw together for dinner whatever food we had on hand. All I had was zucchini, and of course, cheese. Voilà! Au Gratin!  I halved the recipe for just the two of us, which worked out perfectly!

Zucchini Au Gratin

Makes 4 servings

 4-6 medium zucchini

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons chopped onions or shallots

salt and pepper to taste

½ cup heavy cream or crème fraiche (I only had half and half)
¾ cup gruyere cheese (grated)

1 teaspoon tarragon (better to use fresh, but all I had was dried)

1 pinch of nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Grate the zucchini into a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

3. During that time, sauté the onion in butter in a small pan until the onion softens and begins to brown (3-5 minutes). Set aside.

4. Scoop up handfuls of the sitting zucchini and squeeze out the excess moisture over the sink. Combine the squeezed zucchini with the onions and mix in the tarragon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Spread the veggies evenly in an 8” x 8” baking dish.

5. Pour the cream over the zucchini mix. I didn’t have heavy cream, so I substituted half and half, which tasted fine, but the cream would have given the gratin a richer taste.

6. Sprinkle the grated Gruyere over the zucchini mixture—when I halved the recipe, I still used the full amount of grated cheese. What can I say, I love cheese!

7. Place the baking dish in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cheese turns a lovely golden brown.

As you can see from the photo above, I left mine in the oven too long and it went past “lovely golden.” But it tasted heavenly, nonetheless! I loved the nutmeg and tarragon! When I next make this recipe, I‘ll cut the zucchini into ¼-inch slices rather than grate it. It will eliminate the 10-min sitting and squeezing step, and then I’ll just bake it another 5-10 minutes longer.