(from Smitten Kitchen blog)
½ onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 can tomato sauce (15 ounces) (or puree such as Pomi)
2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant (Italian Eggplants are less than half the size of regular ones; it works perfectly)
1 small zucchini (may need 2 if they are small)
1 small yellow squash (may need 2 if they are small)
2 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme (or dried ground thyme)
Salt and pepper
Few Tablespoons soft Goat Cheese (this makes the dish rich with a creamy taste)
Brown rice or other grain
Parchment paper
Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one Tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper. Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube. On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.
Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit. Drizzle the remaining Tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish. Or very lightly sprinkle some dried ground thyme (you can always add more later if needed).
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. Bake at 375˚ for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them. Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top (it will melt and add a creamy taste to the sauce), alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, brown rice or your choice of grain.
recipe found here
