Garden Pie

This is one of those recipes that happened out of lazy desperation. I had a handful of vegetables that I picked from the garden and was craving a frittata but don’t have an ovenproof skillet at the moment. Pizza was an option, but with the kids finally home and exhausted from camp, I wasn’t about to pile them into the car and run out of the house for pre-made dough. Furthermore, I have yeastophobia. (a.k.a. fear of cooking with yeast.) I did have a pre-made pie crust in the freezer, and thought about making a quiche, but the last time I tried to thaw one on a hot humid day, it ended up sticking to itself and becoming a greasy blob and I’m definitely not one of those baking mavens who can pull a pie crust together in 10 minutes. Hence:

1) Preheat oven to 350.

2) Spray bottom of a baking dish with cooking spray or coat with oil. Cover the bottom of the dish with bread. Any kind of bread will work – day old would be great. (I used day old semolina, but you could also use any kind of sliced sandwich bread, sliced roll, even burger or hot dog buns.)

3) Beat about 6 eggs with a whisk or hand blender until well mixed. Pour over bread.

4) While the eggs are soaking into the bread, saute vegetables such as garlic, onion, zucchini and pepper in olive oil over medium high heat until edges begin to brown. Add your choice of fresh herbs if you have them.

While they’re cooking slice a tomato thinly and spread the slices out on top of the bread.

Add the vegetable mixture to the top.

5) Cover with a cup of your favorite cheese.

6) Bake for about 40 minutes or until eggs are set and cheese is bubbly.

Let it set and cool for a few minutes before cutting, then serve like deep dish pizza. You can even call it pizza if that will help your kids eat it.

As you can see, the cheese can be omitted from sections of the pie if, like me, you have a family member who won’t eat cheese. (I know! Who could have spawned him??!)

I have a new blog design- hope it's not confusing anyone. The header is gift from my husband who is a graphic designer. One cool thing about it is that I can switch the photos out of the letters and replace them with new ones when I get tired of these! I changed to a lighter background color because I read that they're easier to read.