Anna-Maria's Zucchini Slice

This is Anna-Maria’s Zucchini Slice from Stephanie Alexander’s Cooks Companion…  I’ve tweaked it a little as I’m sure most people do, it’s one of those no-rules recipes where you can customise it as much or as little as you like.

I love zucchini because it is such a versatile vegetable (although technically it’s an immature fruit- wiki will tell you it’s a swollen ovary of a zucchini flower… sounds appetising), you can put them in almost anything because they don’t have a very strong flavour, which is great when it comes to hiding veggies from your kids! I’ve even eaten a chocolate cake that had grated zucchini in it and it was one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever had- so moist (haha MOIST!)

You will need…

¼ cup of olive oil (the recipe says half a cup but you really don’t need that much)

500g zucchini, grated

1 small carrot, grated

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

200gr smoked bacon, finely chopped

100g freshly grated parmesan cheese

100gr freshly grated tasty cheese

150gr self-raising flour

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 sprig of flat leaf parsley, chopped

2 large round tomatoes, thinly sliced and lightly seasoned

Method…

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 25cm square tin with baking paper, you can use muffin tins if you wish to make mini slices too.

2. Sweat off the bacon and onion in a little bit of oil, then add the garlic and quickly fry.

3. Add all the ingredients except the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon. Fold the flour in last.

4. Pour into the prepared tin and smooth over with the back of a spoon. Top with your sliced, seasoned tomato and bake for about 30 minutes until firm and golden brown.

5. Leave in the tin to cool a bit before cutting into 12 or so pieces and serve warm or pop in the fridge and serve cold. If you don’t eat the whole thing in one go you can wrap the remaining portions up and store them in the freezer for lunches through the week.