This is my favorite way to use up a bumper crop of zucchini and tomatoes. It’s really simple, but packed with loads of flavor. The measurements below will serve four as a side dish, but it can easily be doubled up if you’re cooking for a bigger group, or want to make enough to have leftovers later in the week. I like to serve it with a green salad, or some sauteed green veggies like kale and some sausages to make a full meal.

Note that the prep is really quick for this recipe, but the cooking time in the oven is long, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when you start.

Ingredients

1 pound potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large zucchini, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 large ripe tomatoes, pureed (if you’re making this with tomatoes from the store, try to buy the ones that are still on the vine so you can ripen them up at home for a few days. Store bought tomatoes are usually picked very under-ripe to protect them during shipping, which means even after they turn red they never develop a full flavor, but if they have some of the vine still attached they will ripen better)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Don’t use convection as this will dry out the dish too quickly.
Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and mix well with your hands, or a large spoon if you don’t like getting messy. Make sure all the sliced vegetables are well coated with the tomato and oil mixture and then transfer to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with deep sides.
Bake in the preheated oven, stirring after 1 hour, until vegetables are tender and moisture has evaporated, about 90 minutes. Cool slightly before serving, or serve at room temperature.
90 minutes might seem like a lot of time in the oven, but most of the flavor comes from the slow caramelizing of the vegetables and it’s good to have some charred edges on your veggies to ensure maximum flavor.

Notes and tips

I puree the tomatoes by pulsing them in the blender a few times with the oil and parsley, but the typical way to do it is by cutting them in half and grating them with a large box grater. This will just puree the flesh and leave behind the skin, which will give the sauce a smoother texture and also some people find the skin imparts a bitter flavor. I don’t notice the bitterness myself, so I just go with the lazy blender method.

Don't be afraid of salt and pepper with this dish. Be liberal for best results. Start out as you normally would, and you can always add more seasoning when you check after the 1-hour mark. Also, when you check the vegetables at this point, you might find that all the liquid has already evaporated off, but the potatoes are not all cooked through yet. If this is the case, just add a couple of tablespoons of water to keep the vegetables from burning for the last half hour. You want all the liquid to be cooked away by the end, but not yet at the stirring stage.

Briam (Greek Zucchini, Potato and Tomato Bake)