It seems like the only time you see a nice big gratin dish is at a party. Don’t wait for a fancy occasion to enjoy this recipe. Treat yourself to a pint-sized portion that your lips will love and your hips won’t hate!
Ingredients
½ medium sweet onion (thinly sliced)
2 medium roman tomatoes (cut into 25 – 1/8 inch slices)
1 baby eggplant (cut into 25 – 1/16 inch slices)
2 medium red (new) potatoes (cut into 25 – 1/16 inch slices)
½ cup low-sodium tomato juice
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Topping Ingredients
¼ cup bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary (gently crushed)
¼ teaspoon dried thyme (gently crushed)
1 ounce finely grated gruyere
cooking oil spray
Directions
Note: when buying the vegetables, choose tomatoes, eggplant and potatoes that are all about the same size in circumference so they will fit well together in the ramekins. Make sure you thinly slice the eggplant and potatoes to ensure they cook properly. Cut or tear large basil leaves to match the size of the sliced vegetables. If basil leaves are small, use 2 or 3 to replicate the size of the vegetable slices.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degree Fahrenheit.
- Heat the oil and ground pepper in a skillet and add the onions. Over medium heat, stir the onions in the oil until they are thoroughly coated. Let the onions cook undisturbed for 5 minutes. Then gently flip them to the other side and cook, undisturbed, over medium-low heat another 5 minutes.
- Put the tomato juice and garlic in a small mixing bowl and mix well. Place the potato slices in the tomato juice and mix to ensure all sides of the potatoes are coated. Set them aside in a small bowl. Then cut the eggplant into very thin slices and place them in the tomato juice, completely coating all sides.
- Evenly divide the onions in the bottom of 4 ramekins.
- Vertically stack the vegetables and basil in the ramekins in the following order: basil leaf, tomato, basil leaf, potato, basil leaf, eggplant, basil leaf. Continue in that order until the ramekin is completely full. You should be able to fit 5 – 6 slices of each vegetable into the ramekin.
- Drizzle the remaining tomato juice evenly over the top of the vegetables.
- Place the ramekins on a baking dish or sheet, and bake for 50 minutes at 450 degrees.
- Mix the topping ingredients (except the cooking oil spray) in a small bowl.
- After 50 minutes, remove the ramekins from the oven, turn the oven off and turn the broiler on high.
- Evenly distribute the topping over the 4 ramekins and dust with a light coating of cooking oil spray. Place under the broiler for 3 – 5 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Watch closely to ensure they do not burn.
- Serve hot immediately, either in the ramekins or transferred to a small plate.
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