Summer Tomato Gratin with Goats Cheese

This dish has all the flavours and colours of summer in one big glorious bowl.


I came across this dish when planning a nice meal in with my boyfriend a little while back, and after a few adjustments I've made it into a classic summer staple.



This is so fresh and takes less than an hour and a half to make. It's important to saute the onions first as you want these to be soft and sweet by the time it comes out the oven!


I like to put the chunks of goats cheese quite deep into the dish so that they become little nuggets of joy when serving.
 You want the breadcrumbs to be crunchy so if it needs a little longer in the oven that's alright!

RECIPE
Serves 5-6 with sides, or 4 on its own
Cooking time is around 2 hours

Ingredients:
1kg tomatoes: any shape and size!
200g sweet bite peppers
3 medium onions, cut into wedges
100g mushrooms 
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 chilli cut very fine
80g goats cheese cut into dice sized chunks
1 tbsp caster sugar
8-10 sprigs fresh thyme
3 slices worth of bread crumbs (white stale bread is best)
30g Parmesan cheese
Maldon salt and black pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C or gas mark 4.
Saute the onions, chili and garlic in oil for around 10 minutes, until quite soft and translucent.
Whilst the onions are cooking cut up all the other ingredients. I kept the tomatoes and mushrooms quite chunky and cut the peppers into strips.
Combine the vegetables and thyme in a large dish and bake for 30 minutes.
Bring out the oven and stir the goats cheese in so that they are even distributed: these are going to become little bites that eveyone's going to be fighting over! 
Season the vegetables well.
Put all the bread crumbs on top of the dish, add a few more sprigs of thyme and a drizzle of oil and bake for a further 30 minutes.
Once removed from the oven grate a little Parmesan over the top and serve with a slotted spoon.



Serve with minted new potatoes and my chunky guacamole for a delicious summery dinner. And for dessert? My lemon possets of course!

Have you made any colourful dishes this summer? Let me know!

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