Verdure al Forno

...I believe it's an old, old wooden ship....or perhaps a vegetable dish. Couldn't resist the opportunity for an Anchorman quote. The title of this post is also the title of the dish for tonight, Verdure al Forno. According to Giada, this means "vegetables in the oven," though the only vegetable used is zucchini. She also gives permission to use any vegetable you want. Thankfully, since I'm home for break, I didn't have to substitute. I did later on in the dish as you will now see.

First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then started cutting up five zucchini. The recipe says to cut them into one-inch-thick slices crosswise. I thought this would be far too thick and take forever to cook (leave it to me to always be questioning the recipe). So I cut my slices to about half-inch thick, but forgot about the whole "crosswise" part. I should have cut the zucchini on a diagonal, but it wouldn't be a dish made by me without some mishap and so I had perfectly straight zucchini slices. This didn't change the dish too much, but the slices weren't able to really overlap like I think they should have.

I then sprayed a baking dish with some EVOO spray, and put a layer of zucchini slices down. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, then poured on 1/3 cup of milk. The recipe says to use heavy cream, which I did have and it was NOT past due, but I wanted to add my usual healthy twist. A good swap for heavy cream is usually some fat-free evaporated milk. Luckily, my pantry had some. I shook it well as recommended on the can, opened it up, and stood face-to-face with something that should NOT be called milk. It was this terrible beige color. For all I know, it was supposed to be that color, but after seeing the date on it that read somewhere around August 2009, I ditched it real quick. Skim milk did the job just fine.

Like I said, I poured on some milk, then layered some mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. On top of that I sprinkled some bread crumbs. I repeated this layering process two more times and then let it bake for about 40 minutes or so (actually, it was probably longer). Meanwhile, my mother made some delicious shrimp and scallop scampi over some angel hair. This was my first time eating scallops and that was another successful food tasting. As long as a food doesn't resemble tuna in anyway, I'm almost guaranteed to like it.

The Verdure al Forno was very good, the dish cooked properly and all the way through (it's amazing what an actual oven that can close when a baking dish is placed in it can do). The skim milk made the sauce a bit thinner than what it normally would be, but it was equally as tasty. My family and I agreed that if the zucchini had been sliced thinner (perhaps by a mandolin...the slicer, not the instrument), it would have been even better.

A random lesson learned today: I DO need coffee in order to function properly. I didn't make any for some unknown reason this morning and was sitting around watching football and could not stop yawning or falling in and out of sleep. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me since I honestly did not do anything strenuous today (wrapping presents doesn't really knock me out). I then realized, I had not had my coffee this morning and ran to the kitchen to make some. I didn't exactly spring to life after, but I suddenly became a much more functional human. In conclusion, I'm addicted to coffee. And I have no shame.

I will be making another dessert, this time for my girls, on Wednesday meaning I will have completed ANOTHER cycle through Everyday Italian! How crazy is that?? Until next time, I bid you good eating (sorry Alton Brown).