Squash Asiago

INGREDIENTS:

2 large squash (or eggplant)

2 T basalmic vinegar

2 T grapeseed or olive oil

3 cans tomatoes

1 T Italian seasoning

3 carrots

1/2 onion (I used walla walla)

1/4 t salt

7 cracks of pepper

1/8 t of chili flakes

1-2 garlic cloves

1 bunch of kale

8 oz mozerella and 4 oz asiago

(shred mozerella and asiago together)

3 eggs

2 c bread crumbs (italian seasoned panko preferably)

1/2 c flour (for coating)

yeild: 6 servings

Squash, squash, squash, 'tis the season of squash. I try to keep up with it by picking it when it's small and flavorful, but every once and a while I'll miss on and then I'm faced with a massive vegetable and the thought, "Well what am I supposed to do with this thing?!" Zucchini bread is always nice, but every once and a while I like to mix it up, and do a little twist on the old "eggplant parmesan". This time I did a little experiment, because it was so hot in my kitchen I decided to cook everything on the grill. Crazy huh? Well it kept my house cool, and turned out pretty good in the end.

The smaller squash are the size I like to normally pick them. Squash get huge, quickly.

Start by slicing the squash, you don't want them too thick or too thin. You want them to cook all the way through, but not to be too mushy.

Drizzle oil and vinegar over the squash and give them a quick toss.

Here are the breadcrumbs I used. Any breadcrumbs will be fine. I like the panko because they're a little bigger, and having the Italian style cuts down on a step. If you have plain crumbs, just add a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and italian seasoning to them. It adds more flavor to the dish.

Put the flour, eggs (beaten), and bread crumbs in 3 separate bowls. Flour first, egg in the middle and finish with the bread crumbs. The flour is going to help the egg bind to the sqaush and the eggs will help the bread crumbs bind to the squash.

Squash into flour.

Once it's coated in flour, dip it into the eggs.

Then transfer the egg dipped squsah into the breadcrumbs. And repeat until you've coated half of the squash. Only use the breadcrumbs on the biggest pieces. The other half will be just grilled.

This is when I got a little crazy. Instead of baking them at 375 until golden brown I put them on the grill. If you don't have a grill (or if you have air conditioning and baking won't affect your house temperature) you can bake them until golden brown.

If you do them in the grill, place the burners on a low flame. You don't want to burn the breadcrumbs before the squash has a chance to cook a little.

After 15 minutes flip, keep an eye on them and if they seem to be getting too dark (don't mind the burnt crumbs on the pan, just keep an eye on the squash) turn down the heat.

While squash is browning you can get the rest of the ingredients together. Dice onions and shred carrots and add to the tomatoes.

Add salt, pepper, chili flakes, seasoning and garlic and puree with hand blender.

Chiffonade (cut into long, thin strips) kale. I normally take one leaf and wrap it around the rest and then slice all of the leaves together.

After the first 15 minutes add the rest of the squash onto the grill. If you don't have a grill you can skip this step, just cook the final dish a little longer to make sure everything is tender.

These will only take a couple of minutes to cook. Flip and then remove from the grill.

Once your squash is browned and off of the grill you can start layering. First put down a third of the tomato sauce into a glass baking dish.

Spread a little bit of the kale on top of the sauce.

Put half of the breaded squash on top of the kale, the other half will be used in another layer.

Put 1/3 of the sauce on top of the squash.

Layer grilled squash on top of sauce.

Add more kale and then top with 1/2 cheese.

Add remaining kale on top of the cheese if you have any left.

Top with the remaining squash.

On top of the squash add the rest of the sauce and cheese. Place back in grill until cheese melts. If you are baking, place in a 375 degree oven until everything melts. I turned the 2 right burners on, and left the ones directly under the dish off. I didn't want the dish to get too hot.

The cheese began to melt after 15 minutes.

So there you have it. Yep, it's a little crazy to grill something like this, but it's better than heating up and already hot house. I will admit, this is not as good as eggplant parmesan, but it is a great way to use up all of that squash in your garden! Enjoy.