Vegetable Torte

Inspired by Mark Bittman's recent contribution to my veggie repertoire, I attempted a somewhat slimmer version of his succulent vegetable torte that you can read about here.

You can also see a handsome image captured by Evan Sung. My feeble attempt leaves much to be desired but it does hold some merit for effort, desire and palatability.

As is often the case, instead of waiting until I'd made a trip to the market to have all the listed ingredients on hand, I plowed forward with one medium sized eggplant, one juicy, red beefsteak tomato, and two slim zucchinis and of course lots of fresh garlic. The depth or height, or however one phrases these measurements, was no where near as aesthetically pleasing or impressive as the professionally produced version but it didn't disappoint in the taste department.

Once again confirming that it's hard to mess up a mess of fresh vegetables.

My crumb topping contributed a little extra flavor. I processed two thick slices of the caraway rye bread I'd made the day before. Then with my handy-dandy micro-grater, I layered on a sprinkling of parmigiana regianno—the remaining holdout in my departure from all things dairy. Using the rasp-like kitchen tool allows a small amount of an ingredient to go a very long way.

I realized afterwards, that a mix of crushed pine nuts with some lemon zest and nutritional flakes would have been a better choice to top off the fresh bread crumbs - avoiding dairy altogether. Well, we'll try that next time.

All told, it was an impressive dish made from one eggplant, two zucchini and a tomato.