BAKED COURGETTES WITH RICOTTA & TOMATO

If you’re lucky enough to have a vegetable garden, this is a really delicious way to use up courgettes and tomatoes in late summer. It has a similar vibe to eggplant involtini but using courgettes instead. 

If you don’t have any tomatoes on hand, tinned tomatoes will work fine too. 

I used a roasting dish which can be used on the stovetop too to save on dishes, using a frypan and transferring to a roasting dish will work as well. The dish should be roughly 25cm in diameter. 

INGREDIENTS

Tomato Sauce
600g vine tomatoes, halved - or 600g tinned chopped tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon chilli flakes, optional
1 tablespoon brown sugar 
Sea salt
Cracked pepper

To Assemble
5 courgettes, thinly sliced
500g ricotta
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup finely grated parmesan
Sea salt
Cracked pepper

Breadcrumbs
1 cup bread crumbs
¼ cup finely grated parmesan
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt

METHOD

Heat the oven to 180ºC regular bake. 

In a medium frypan, combine the tomato sauce ingredients. Place the lid on top and simmer for 15 minutes over a medium heat. Remove the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes to reduce the liquid, stir frequently

Meanwhile, finely slice the courgettes. 

In a bowl, combine the ricotta, dried oregano, minced garlic and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. 

In another bowl, combine the breadcrumb ingredients.

To assemble, take ⅓ of the tomato sauce and smear it out evenly in the base of a roasting dish. Place a single layer of courgettes in the base of the dish, have them overlapping slightly as you would a potato gratin.

Take ½ of the ricotta mixture and smear it out over the courgettes. The courgettes will slide around a bit but don’t worry about that. 

Place a second layer of courgettes on top of the ricotta and smear the remaining ricotta on top. 

Finish with a final layer of courgettes then top with the remaining tomato sauce and breadcrumbs. 

Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbling and golden.