My sister's wedding was this past weekend and it presented two particular challenges for me:
1. Holding it together during the ceremony (which did NOT happen)
2. Making a vegetarian, gluten-free main dish for the rehearsal dinner
I thought, very briefly, about doing something casserole-y with rice flour or with rice pasta but this was not really the time for experimentation. This was the time for making something pretty.
I sort of fused the recipes found here and here and added an extra layer of cheese for good measure. But you could do this with just about anything in your CSA box as long as you have a springform pan and enough time to let the torte rest and express all the excess water in the veggies.
Roasted Vegetable Torte - Adapted from Gourmet and Ina Garten, serves 6
6 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1 medium eggplant, cut into rounds
4 bell peppers, any color, sliced in half and seeded
1 large red onion, cut into thick rings
2 yellow squash, cut on the diagonal
2 green zucchini, cut on the diagonal
2 Tbsp. red or balsamic vinegar
Zest of one lemon
About 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
2 Tbsp. milk
About 1 cup shredded parmigano reggiano
About 1/2 cup finely chopped basil
Good sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Several Tbsp. very good olive oil (I used some that was infused with porcini mushrooms)
Heat oven to 350 and toss pepper halves with salt, pepper, and olive oil. On a foil covered baking sheet, place peppers cut side down and roast until they are soft and slightly charred (about 40 minutes).
Heat 2 Tbsp. oil over low heat and cook garlic until soft. Turn heat up to medium and add rounds of eggplant in a single layer, turning once, and cooking about 5 minutes total. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Add more oil to the pan if needed (eggplant will absorb the most) and cook yellow squash and zucchini in the same manner.
Turn the heat down to medium low and add slices of onion to the pan with the vinegar. Cook until onions have carmelized and vinegar is evaporated (about 18 minutes)
Mix zest of the lemon with mascarpone cheese and thin with milk until it is a spreadable consistency.
Now it's time for STACKIN'
Spray a 9 inch springform pan (lip side down) with olive oil and place a layer of slightly overlapping eggplant in the bottom. Then cover with a bit of chopped basil and the parm cheese, thusly:
Then the yellow squash, with the cheese and basil:
Then a layer of peppers:
Spread the layer of mascarpone cheese over the pepper layer with a rubber spatula. When the onions have come to room temp, pile those on top. Like so:
And finally the zucchini is the top layer. I arranged mine like a starburst:
Then you cover the whole shebang in plastic wrap and place a plate just inside the springform ring. Place it in a larger, edged baking dish and weight it with three 15 oz. cans of something in the fridge overnight. You may have to drain the liquid at least once to keep it from overflowing.
Release the outside of the springform but keep it on the bottom plate part for serving. It's way too hard to slide off and after all that stacking, you don't want to risk ruining it by doing that. Trust.
