An-End-of-the-Season TOMATO GRATIN 3.0 by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
October 9, 2024
There are stll decent, ripe tomatoes at our petite Farmers’ Market in South Boston. To be sure, they are really winding down. I keep making this dish every week because it is so delicious and so simple to assemble.
As I have made it a few times I have refined my technique and found the best ‘hack’ is to preslice the tomatoes and lay them out on paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Either do this step a couple of hours before you want to assemble and bake the gratin, or do it the day before and leave them in the fridge overnight.
A ceramic/glass/porcelain gratin dish works beautifully for this recipe — I used a porcelain quiche dish. It is 10-inches in diameter and about 2 1⁄2-inches deep. It is deep enough to build 3 layers of sliced tomatoes, which I found, after having made the gratin three times, to be the perfect number of layers!
Ingredients
6 medium-size, ‘hot house’-shaped, round tomatoes, 3 1⁄4 -3 1⁄2 pounds, total weight
4-5 ounces of good quality prepared croutons (I used ‘butter-garlic’ flavored croutons.)
1⁄2 bunch flat-leaf parsley, washed, dried and leaves picked from the stems
1 or 2 shallots, peeled and very thinly sliced
8-10 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus more as needed
2 1⁄2 -3 1⁄2 teaspoons dried herbes de Provence spice mix *** See Below
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Optional: 2 tablespoons finely grated, best quality parmigiana cheese
*** Herbes de Provence is a mixture of some, or all of the following dried herbs: rosemary, garlic, lavender, thyme, parsley, marjoram, tarragon, basil, savory and sage. I used Morton & Basset Organic Herbes de Provence which we sell at Foodie’s. The dried lavender is what makes this herb blend distinctive.
Directions
Prep the tomatoes
Wash and dry the tomatoes. Use a sharp paring knife and remove the core from each tomato. Line a quarter or half-sheet pan with a thick layer of paper towels. Begin slicing the tomatoes into even slices, about 3/8-inch thick. Lay each slice on the paper towels. Continue slicing and layering the cut tomatoes on more
layers of paper towels. Don’t overlap the tomatoes, you want them to be separated to drain. And use 2-3 layers of paper towels to ensure the juices are absorbed. Either set the sliced tomatoes aside for a couple of hours or refrigerate them overnight in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Prepare the topping/crust
Measure about 2 cups of loosely packed, washed & dried parsley leaves. Roughly chop the leaves and transfer to a large bowl. Put the croutons in a zip-locked plastic bag and roll over the croutons a few times with a rolling pin to crush them into rough chunks. Add to the bowl with the parsley. Very thinly slice the shallot and add it to the bowl. Stir to combine. Drizzle with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir again to combine. Sprinkle in the grated parmigiana cheese, if using. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Stir again to combine. Set aside.
Assemble the gratin
Use a couple of teaspoons of the olive oil and lightly oil the bottom and sides of the dish you are using. Begin layering the tomatoes in the bottom of the dish. Overlap each tomato slice slightly and couple of slices of tomato slices as well.
Sprinkle olive oil on top of the tomatoes...sparingly. Lightly season the tomatoes with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Finally, sprinkle 1 1⁄2 teaspoons of herbes de Provence over the tomatoes. Repeat and repeat again the same steps. You will have built three layers of tomatoes, each layer seasoned with olive oil, herbes de Provence and salt and pepper. And don’t forget to build layers of tomato slices in the center as well.
When finished layering the tomatoes, evenly distribute the parsley-crushed-croutons-sliced shallotscheese mix over the top of the gratin. Completely cover the top in an even layer.
Bake the gratin for 50-60 minutes, turning the dish around halfway through the baking process. Edges of the gratin should be ‘bubbly’ and the top should be nicely browned. Remove the dish from the oven and let stand for five minutes before serving.
SERVINGS: about 6-8 servings as a side dish
PREP TIME: about 30-40 minutes active time (plus extra time needed to let tomatoes drain on paper towels)
COOKING TIME: about 50-60 minutes in the oven
