Zucchini Red Potato Gratin

In fear of seeing our zucchini pile turn to rot OR succumb to the army of fruit flies infesting our apartment, I turned to one of my favorite new websites, 101 Cookbooks, for a quick and thoughtless recipe for the squash.  I generally don’t like to completely follow someone else’s recipe, but being so busy at work recently, left me little time for creativity.  I changed the amount of most of the ingredients, but that’s about it- enjoy!

1 extra large zucchini, or 2 medium ones (about 1 lb), sliced into rounds, as thinly as possible

5 red potatoes (about 1 lb), sliced into rounds, as thinly as possible

1 3/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup organic butter

3/4 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1 1/2 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 gloves garlic, minced

1 cayenne pepper, minced

1/2 tsp sea salt

Dash of black pepper

• Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until butter is brown and bubbling.  Wait 2 minutes, add breadcrumbs and stir well, then remove from heat
• Mix the olive oil, oregano, parsley, garlic, cayenne, salt, lemon juice and pepper together in a bowl
• Add zucchini and potatoes together in a large bowl and coat well with 2/3 of the parsley/olive oil sauce, until everything is covered
• Add the cheese and 1/2 of the breadcrumbs and mix well again
• Transfer the zucchini and potato mix into a greased 9 X 9 baking pan and top with the rest of the breadcrumbs
• Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 50 minutes
• Remove from oven and drizzle the remaining parsley/olive oil sauce