This is what was for dinner tonight:

Here’s what went into it:
Ingredients:
1.5 medium zucchini and/or summer squash, sliced into 1/4″ rounds
2 cups breadcrumbs, Italian flavored
1 egg
2 Tb cold water
1 tsp milk (optional)
3 cups tomato sauce, Italian flavored
1/2 cup red onion, sliced into strips
1/2 cup green pepper, diced
1/3 cup black olives, sliced
1-2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup basil (or spinach), shredded
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese, to top
Oil for frying

First, below is a recipe for an “Italian flavored tomato sauce,” since in this case this is what I used in this particular recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Saute the onions, add to tomato sauce. Whisk egg with water and milk in shallow bowl, set aside. Add breadcrumbs with salt and pepper into a similar bowl. Dunk the sliced zucchini/summer squash rounds into the egg and then the breadcrumbs, shake excess, arrange on plate, no more than 2 layers high. Deep fry rounds 2 mins each side, or until browned. Divide rounds, green pepper, olives, cheese and basil into 4 piles.
Begin layering by placing a small amount of tomato sauce onto the bottom of a 9×13″ baking dish. Place a layer of the zucchini/summer squash rounds over the sauce, then sprinkle one of the piles of cheese, then one of the piles of green peppers, olives, basil, then start over with the rounds, sauce, cheese, green peppers, olives, basil and so on. Bake for about 30 mins or until browned. I turned mine up to 400 degrees for the last 10 minutes to really brown the top. Garnish with basil. Enjoy!

Quick Italian flavored tomato sauce:
Saute the onions (plus 2 small cloves garlic, not listed in ingredient listed above). Add 4 Tb tomato paste, 1 cup chicken broth or stock, and 1 10oz can tomato sauce, and 1 tsp dried Italian seasonings (also not in ingredient list), stir, cook until quite thick.

Hey!
So I’ve been getting really into cooking these past couple of years, I even took a community ed cooking class this spring and plan to take another in the fall. So, I am adding a large transformation to this blog, called Cooking with Jessica! That simply means that I am going to share all of my favorite recipes with you, laying out exactly how I did it, and including pictures of the final result! So, stay tuned, and come hungry! Let me know what you think of them too!