Add to favorites

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) recipe.

Sometimes you get a hankering for a casserole even though it’s summer. This dish is easy to put together. The spouse or the kids can help chop and it comes together fast. You can be doing other things while your dinner bakes in the oven. Makes great leftovers, too.

I graded this a Z3.5 because it includes some potatoes. If you want to make it with no potatoes you can incorporate bell pepper strips (red, yellow and orange) and have it be extra Italian. That would make it a Z3.

Serves: 4 as an entree. 6 as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 1-½ cups of Yukon gold potatoes cut into narrow pieces. (I used Yukon gold baby potatoes because you can usually buy them in small quantities; even by the potato. You won’t need many. Maybe 6 or 8.  Fingerlings will work fine, too. That will give you 40 grams of carbs in the potatoes divided by 4 people. Not bad.)
• 1 medium zucchini (maybe 10” long)
• 4 ripe, plum tomatoes
• 1 small onion (Vidalia) or to taste. I don’t like too much onion in this dish.
• 1/3 tsp of Italian seasoning blend
• 1 package of pepperoni. You can use small pieces or the larger ones. My deli-sized pack was just perfect. It was about 20 slices. I try to get uncured pepperoni if I can.
• ½ cup of garlic and herb Allouette soft cheese. This is half of the container.
• Grated pepper to taste. This dish doesn’t need salt because of the pepperoni.
• ½ cup of grated Parmesan (or shredded)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Get out an ovenproof pan that’s 9” x 9”. Spray the base with olive oil.

Cut all of your veggies into narrow slices. Shoot for 1/8” wide. That way they will cook evenly.

Then begin your layering. I put ½ of the slices of zucchini on the bottom. Top with a layer of potatoes. Dab half of your Alouette cheese in teaspoon blobs across the potatoes. Then top with pepperoni. You can press on the pepperoni to spread the cheese underneath. Then put on the onions and the tomato slices. Sprinkle on half of your Italian seasoning and a grate of black pepper.

Repeat the layering process with the second half of those ingredients.

Cover with aluminum foil and put in your oven. Bake, covered for 45 minutes. Then check to see if it’s done. All you need to do is poke a sharp knife in see if the potatoes are soft and the zucchini is cooked. It might need to go back in the oven for up to 15 minutes more depending on how thickly you sliced your veggies.

To finish up, remove the foil. Sprinkle on the Parmesan. Turn your broiler on and put the casserole back in to melt the cheese on top and get a bit of a brown crust.  Keep an eye on your broiler so you don’t over broil the cheese.

Remove from oven. You can let it rest for a few minutes so you don’t burn your tongue when you eat it.

Enjoy!

Cheers,