This simple gratin makes a great side dish for well anything really.
It’s creamy and full of summer flavour without being too rich. Serve with a big salad for a light supper. Or as a side dish with grilled chicken or BBQ fish. Preparation time is less than 30 mins with cooking at 30 mins to 1 hour, depending how crunchy you like it. Serves 4. I sometimes amend this to suit other dishes such as adding more thyme or sage when partnering with chicken or paprika and chunks of chorizo with Spanish style menus. Perfect for vegetarians.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 800g/1lb 12oz courgettes, sliced into 5mm/¼in rounds
- few sprigs thyme
- few basil leaves
- 100ml/3½fl oz crème fraîche
- 50ml/2fl oz milk
- 1 tsp plain flour
- 75g/2½oz gruyère or similar cheese, grated
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
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Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6
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Put the olive oil in a large, lidded frying pan. Add the courgettes and herbs and season with salt and pepper.
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Cover and cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring every so often, until the courgettes have softened slightly but are still al dente. The oil should be rich green colour from the courgettes.
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Transfer to an oven dish. Whisk the crème fraîche, milk and flour together in a bowl and season with salt. Pour this mixture over the courgettes – it will not be enough to completely cover the courgettes, but this is fine – it will bubble up when cooking.
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Sprinkle over the cheese. Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes, or until brown and bubbling.