Savory Summer Cobbler
This recipe is from Good and Cheap.
Good and Cheap is a gorgeous cookbook for people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) and has been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times. I have more cookbooks, too!
I’m still on vacation so here’s another delicious summer recipe from the archives! This savory summer cobbler is basically a kind of play on ratatouille with a big tray of roasted vegetables and savory southern style biscuit topping to soak up all the flavorful juices. Enjoy it!
This savory summer cobbler is featured in Good and Cheap, but I initially made it when I was an apprentice at the Battery Urban Farm in downtown Manhattan. The farm had a farm share program where neighbors bought shares of the produce the farm would produce weekly. They would come by once a week and pick up their bags of delicious fresh produce. Because we couldn’t exactly predict what people would get each week (it would depend on what was growing well) it was always a bit of a surprise basket. So when I could I would develop a recipe or two the day before and print it off and have it ready for people picking up their shares. That way people would not have to be grasping for what to do with their bounty!
The savory summer cobbler came at a time when we had been having a lot of zucchini and tomatoes and people were beginning to wonder what more they could do with them! The other version of this, made with eggplant instead of zucchini is also delicious and tastes quite similar to the pasta I shared last week. Tomato, eggplant and zucchini all produce like crazy once they get going. So you if you have any of these beautiful summer vegetables in your fridge, give this a try.
- 3 to 4 medium zucchini or summer squash cut into bit-size pieces
- 3 to 4 large tomatoes (canned or fresh) cut into bite size pieces
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 4 scallions finely chopped
- 1 lemon zested
- 1/4 fresh basil cut into ribbons (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 cup cheddar grated
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup milk
- Put the butter for the topping in the freezer for 30 minutes. Set the oven to 425 F.
- Lightly oil an 8"x10" baking dish (or any baking dish that will accommodate the mixture) and pile in the vegetables, garlic, scallions, lemon zest, and basil (if using). Pour the olive oil, salt, and pepper over top and mix it up with your hands. Bake the vegetables for 25 minutes while you prepare the biscuit topping.
- For the topping, measure out the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, pepper, paprika and cheese into a bowl. Mix it up!
- Once the butter is frozen, use a box grater to flake the butter into the flour mixture. Gently massage the butter into the flour with your fingers until it's crumbly but still clumpy. Add the milk and quickly bring the dough together. Don't knead the dough: lumpiness is fine and results in flaky topping. Put it in the fridge until the vegetables come out of the oven.
- Once the vegetable mixture has cooked for 25 minutes, quickly top it with small clumps of biscuit dough. The vegetables should still be visible in some areas.
- Bake for 10 to 25 minutes or until the vegetables are bubbly and the topping is lightly browned. Top with some more cheddar and some chopped herbs, then enjoy!
For a variation, swap the zucchini for eggplant. Chop the eggplant into bite-sized pieces, salt them, and set them aside for 30 minutes before continuing with the recipe as you would with the zucchini.
1 Comment
I made this once and substituted a green tomato from my garden as one of the tomatoes. It added a nice tang. I love easily this recipe can be a jumping off point.