Gratin de courgettes au pain

We're getting a lot of summer squashes out of the garden right now. There are two kinds growing out there this summer — long green zucchini and small, round yellow "lemon squash." Yesterday I used four of the lemon squashes to make a gratin, or, in U.S. parlance, a casserole.

The first step is to cut cubes of stale bread. I used about 2 cups of them. Put them in a bowl and pour a little bit of either olive oil or melted butter over them to moisten them. Also chop a large onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and mix them in with the bread, along with some fresh or dried herbs — I used dried oregano, some fennel powder, and a couple of bay leaves.

Let the bread and aromatics sit for a while so that the flavors blend. Then cut up the squash (zucchini or yellow squash) and add it to the mixture as well — you need two cups of cubed squash or a little more. Add some more oil or melted butter if you think it needs it.

I decided to put sausage meat in my casserole to make it into a one-dish meal. I had some skinny French chipolata sausages in the freezer. I cooked them in a covered pan on low heat until the were completely done and had started to brown. Then I cut them up and mixed them in with the squash and bread. I beat two eggs, poured the egg over all, and stirred it all together again. It occurs to me that cubes of cooked chicken or turkey breast, instead of or with the sausage, would be good in this kind of dish.

All that went into a baking dish and then cooked, covered, in the oven in the oven at 180ºC (350ºF) for 30 to 40 minutes, until the squash was tender and the bread crunchy. Then I took off the lid and put a layer of grated cheese (Emmental, in my case, but U.S. Swiss or Cheddar would be good) over the casserole ingredients and let that continue cooking for another 20 or 30 minutes, until the cheese started to brown. (Sorry I neglected to take a photo of the finished dish, but then it just looked like a dish of melted cheese!)

I thought this casserole was a really good way to prepare some more of our abundant zucchini crop. We've been grilling thick slices of zucchini and we've recently made a zucchini lasagna as well as a dish of rice cooked with zucchini and cheese from a 1970s-era Monique Maine recipe. My casserole with bread, zucchini, and sausage was inspired by this recipe.