Once Again—Potato, Tomato & Zucchini Tian with Gruyère and Thyme

For the 4th of July I made the above Potato, Tomato & Zucchini Tian with Gruyère and Thyme. Mister Sive was cooking away on the grill. I posted the above on social media and was asked to give out the recipe. I had written about it for the blog several years ago. This time I also added minced garlic to the onions as they initially cooked away. The Vashon Island Thriftway had gorgeous looking garlic bulbs so I just had to give one a try. Aside from that, it was just like I wrote about in 2014. This is a great thing to make for a crowd or for a table of 2. You can assemble it hours in advance and pop it into the fridge to sit until ready to bake. As guests chat away, it can bubble away in the oven–the juices it creates a welcome little sauce to the meat or fish it saddles up next to.

Heat oven to 375 degrees while you get things chopping. Cut up one sweet onion. On the stove top in a skillet, brown the onion with extra virgin olive oil. (Add the minced garlic a tad before the onions are done and cook for just a few minutes. Always careful not to overcook the garlic as it becomes bitter fast. You want sweet.) Once done, line the bottom of a baking dish with the sautéed onions and garlic. Add thyme that you pull off the buds and just sprinkle around and on top of your onions. This is the base. Fine that this cools a bit while you start chopping away.

Next, you want to choose Roma tomatoes, small Yukon gold potatoes and zucchini that are very similar in circumference. Cut each into quarter inch sizes. On top of the onions, start stacking the slices, alternating the 3 as you go. Once done, add a liberal sprinkling of salt over the top of things. A bit of pepper too. Add more thyme leaves over the lot as well. The herb is so mellow and really adds to the lusciousness of this dish. Finally add a few whole springs of the thyme to the dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake in your now hot oven for 45 minutes. 

Once the 45 minutes has passed, take out of oven, remove the foil and the whole thyme stems and discard. Add a generous, make that a super generous about of grated Gruyère cheese to the entire top of the dish. I take extra care to make sure the cheese has also fallen down the sides of the mixture. You really want all of this cheesy goodness spread everywhere once it is done. Put back into the oven uncovered, for another half hour so the cheese melts and the mixture finishes cooking. Trust me, you will be quite pleased with yourself. It is so darn good! The cooked and melted mixture of the onions/garlic with the potatoes and the tomatoes and the zucchini mixed with the herbaceous goodness of the thyme is really all quite something.