Monday, December 17, 2012

Cheesy Zucchini Casserole


I shoulda doubled the recipe as we finished the entire tray in one evening.  Low-carb comfort food at its best.  Hope you all agree.

Cheesy Zucchini Casserole

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 shallots chopped
1 red pepper chopped
pinch garlic salt
pinch dried oregano

3-4 zucchinis, sliced into disks (I use a mandoline slicer)
1/3 cup full fat ricotta
8 oz (2 cups) grated colby jack cheese
1/4 cup whipping cream
butter to grease the pan
Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat up olive oil and butter in non-stick fry pan at medium-high heat.  Throw in shallots and cook 3-5 minutes until they start to caramelize.  Add in red pepper and the pinch of garlic salt and oregano.  Cook a few more minutes until shallots are caramelized and the red peppers are soft.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Grease a 9 x 12 pan with butter.  Place zucchini disks, one layer at a time, spreading them apart fairly evenly like you would do with scalloped potatoes.  Salt and Pepper each new layer of zucchini.  On the first layer of zucchini, spread out the ricotta cheese.  On the second layer, sprinkle a handful of the grated cheese.  On the third layer, evenly pour the whipping cream, and on the fourth layer spread out the shallot and pepper mixture.  Top with remainder of grated cheese.

Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the top is slight browned and bubbly.

9 comments:

  1. Omg, this was amazing! I doubled the veggies and added fresh basil. Hubby even scarfed it down :)

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  2. Hi Anna, I made this today except when I got home from the grocery store I realized I forgot ricotta. I am not smart. I decided to go ahead anyway and had some mushrooms in the fridge I needed to use up. I did everything as per your directions but added a layer of sautéed mushrooms. That shallot, pepper (I used four colours of peppers) and cheese topping is horribly addictive. Maybe it's the butter, maybe it's the shallots, maybe it's the cheese but my god I want to put that on everything!

    Didn't realize you had homemade ricotta recipe on the site. I'm gonna try that too!

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  3. That looks great! I love zucchini and the other commenter's idea of fresh basil sounds good, too. Thanks for sharing. :)

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  4. I made this recently and it was yummy, but there was a lot of liquid in the pan. I did use cottage cheese rather than ricotta. What did I do wrong?

    Thanks! Stefanie
    ps... LOVE you and Vinnie!!

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  5. Hey Stefanie-
    Cottage cheese sounds like a great idea! Zucchini will release a lot of liquid when you cook it. If you are layering evenly, with the cheese between the layers, it will help absorb some of the excess water. If it's still too liquidy, you can actually "cheat" by carefully draining the liquid out of the casserole pan into the sink 5 mins after you take it out of the oven. Just make sure you hold the casserole in place with a spatula or a towel. The cheese should have hardened enough to touch it.

    So glad you are loving the podcast! Much more to come...

    Cheers-
    Anna

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  7. And here's the homemade ricotta cheese recipe, which will be much less liquidy than storebought: http://glutenfreeanna.blogspot.com/2012/06/homemade-ricotta-cheese.html

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  8. Awesome recipe! I'm definitely going to double it up next time.

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  9. Awesome! I doubled the ricotta, and plan on doubling EVERYTHING next time - we ran out! Even the picky eaters loved this. :)

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