Roast Zucchini and Tomatoes

Last summer I actually had a garden that actually produced food stuffs. This summer not so much, but one thing I did experiment with a ton was zucchini (which I always say in my head like the little Jawa's from Star Wars--Hootini! hootini!). This was one of Alex's favorite experiments. It would be a great lunch or appetizer.

Ingredients:

fresh zucchini

fresh tomatoes

fresh basil

fresh garlic

fresh grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

low fat mozzarella

olive oil

balsamic vinegar (optional)

salt and pepper

Heat your oven to 375 degrees.Cut the zucchini into rounds about 1/3 inch think. Quarter or eighth the tomatoes depending on how big they are. Spread the zucchini and tomatoes on baking sheets. Chop up the basil and garlic together--with a little salt if you want the resulting paste to be finer.

Spread a little of the basil-garlic paste on each tomato. Drizzle the tomatoes with the olive oil and also the balsamic vinegar if you so desire. Sprinkle the zucchini with the Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. (You won't need much salt, if any at all). Drizzle the zucchini with olive oil.

Roast for about 45 minutes. The tomatoes should have crispy bits and the zucchini should be cooked completely. It smells divine when it is cooking.

Serve the tomatoes with a small slice of mozzarella. I like to put the cheese on right after it comes out of the oven so it has a chance to melt a little before serving. I think the cheese adds a nice creamy texture and cuts the bite of the vinegar, I don't consider it optional on the tomatoes.

I would say the serving size for a lunch is about half of a large tomato and a whole medium zucchini per person (if you like zucchini that is).