Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale, on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen, I'm going to share
with you how to make a delicious, perfect for Summer, tomato gratin.
It's easy, it's so easy, it's ridiculous!
But when you are in the middle of Summer, especially if you are lucky enough to be from
Jersey, like I am, and you can get your hands on some beautiful, local, juicy sweet yummy
tomatoes, I don't typically like to do a whole lot with them because I just think raw are
so good.
But, topped with a crispy crust, it's incredible.
What do I have in here you might ask?
I've got several different types of tomatoes, I've got some beautiful, really ruby red tomatoes,
and I've got a few heirloom tomatoes, you can see a beautiful yellow one, that one's
more of a variegated one, they're phenomenal, and I have them all in here and understand
I have a little drizzle of olive oil, very simple.
I've got my oven preheated to 400 degrees and before we go any further with the crust,
I want to pop these into the oven, here's all you do.
To your tomatoes, I like to cut them into wedges instead of big circles, because the
circles are kind of hard to come out of here, you have to overlap them really perfectly,
I don't do that, that's just way too much work for me plus it's hard to serve.
A good drizzle of olive oil on your tomatoes, and a good pinch of salt.
What I'm going to do is pop these into the oven for ten minutes, in the meantime, we'll
get going on the crumb topping which is insanely easy and so good, just you wait.
Alright so what do I have in here?
I've got some bread, this is just a baguette, you can use any bread that you like like a
ciabatta or anything like that, it's preferably if it's stale.
I've got a piece of Parmigiano Reggiano, I've got parsley, I've got fresh oregano and I've
got garlic.
All of this is going to go in a food processor.
We're kinda going to make homemade breadcrumbs, if you will, and then we are going to add
oil to them and they're going to go on top of the tomatoes.
If you want to do this with mushrooms, you can, if you want to top zucchini, asparagus,
Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, whatever roast veggies you want with this topping is phenomenal,
but it works particularly well with tomatoes.
So I"m just going to pulse until it's to the texture that I like and I will show you what
it looks like when it's there.
This looks great, I'm just going to add about three tablespoons of good olive oil, pulse
that just until it's well blended, and then we just wait for the tomatoes to come out,
top, put it back in and I'll show you.
Alright my breading is done, I also wanted to mention that when I added the olive oil,
I also added a pinch of salt, and a pinch of pepper.
Now my tomatoes were in there for 10 minutes, they already smell insanely good, like I can't
even tell you, just a pure Summer tomatoe-y goodness, I don't know how else to describe
it.
I made a little bit more topping than I'm going to need, that's because this is great
to keep in the fridge to go on fish, to go on top of veggies, whatever your heart desires,
I"m actually going to top some chicken with it and pop that into the oven, really simple
and easy, so there you go.
This goes back in 20-ish minutes until it's yummy, golden brown and crispy and delicious
and I'll show you what it looks like when it's there.
This went back in for twenty minutes and if you can just smell this you would understand
why I am so excited about it.
You really should let this cool a lot longer, but it's just - you know what it's like?
It's an easier version of stuffed tomatoes, you ever have stuffed tomatoes?
Same thing really, but a much easier version.
The tomatoes are like buttery soft, the topping is crispy, this is going to be really hot
though so I need a much smaller piece.
Let this cool a whole lot more than I'm letting it cool because it's really hot, you want
to serve this at room temperature.
That is so good, there are literally no words for it.
Doesn't look like much, it's not the most beautiful thing to serve but along with any
protein or just by itself with a lovely green salad on the side, it would be such a perfect
Summertime dinner or late lunch, it's just wonderful and I think you will really enjoy
all the flavors together especially when using the very best tomatoes you can get your hands
on.
Go to LauraintheKitchen.com, get the written recipe, I'm telling you make extra of the
stuffing, topping, whatever you want to call it, and top whatever else you want with it,
because it's so good.
Hope you have enjoyed spending time with me and I will see you next time.
Bye.