Seasonal recipe: Zucchini de Provence

Use herbes de Provence to season this baked zucchini side dish.

Mon, Aug 02 2010 at 10:15 AM EST

I was sent some herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. They sent me a jar each of Epicurian Organics Lemon Pepper, Pumpkin Pie Spice and Herbes de Provence. Mountain Rose offers a variety of organic spices and spices. They also offer organic and fair trade teas, as well essential oils, natural health products, bath and body care products, and more.

I also had a very large zucchini that my niece gave me from her garden that I needed to use up. I used the ingredients search on Allrecipes.com and typed in zucchini and herbes de Provence to see what recipes I could come up with. I found Baked Zucchini de Provence — a simple but flavorful zucchini side dish.

Mountain Rose Herb’s version of herbes de Provence contains a variety of typical French herbs and includes lavender. Some versions of herbes de Provence do not include the lavender. If you are not used to cooking with lavender, it takes a little getting used to.

If you’re looking for something different to do with your abundance of zucchini, and at this time during the summer most people that grow zucchini are, why not give this dish a try?

Ingredients

3 zucchini, sliced into ¼ inch slices (depending on the size of the zucchinis you may need more or less – my one large zucchini was enough)
6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 tsp fine sea salt
1 Tbsp Herbes de Provence
1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (use fresh, not the shaker type)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Place half of zucchini layered in a 9-pie plate.
Drizzle with 1 tbsp of olive oil and season with some of the salt and Herbes de Provence.
Continue layering and seasoning until all of the zucchini is used up.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Right before the 30 minutes is up, stir together breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and 3 tbsp of olive oil in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread evenly over the baked zucchini and return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve hot.

My notes:

If you want to give this a try and don’t have herbes de Provence, you can make your own mix from herbs you probably have on your shelf. Martha Stewart has a recipe where lavender is optional.
Some of the reviewers at Allrecipes.com said other vegetables work well in this recipe. One user made it with asparagus and yellow bell peppers instead of zucchini

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