Tuscan-style zucchini casserole

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 kg zucchini, cut into approx. 1 cm thick slices
• Sea salt, from the mill
• Black pepper, freshly ground
• 7 tbsp flour, Viennese semolina flour (this sticks best)
• 12 tbsp olive oil
• 500 g minced beef
• 5 tbsp paprika powder (sweet or hot or mixed, depending on your taste)
• 4 thyme, fresh
• 4 marjoram, fresh
• 4 basil, fresh
• 200 g cheese, grated Pecorino
• 6 eggs
• 6 garlic cloves, sliced
• 200 g crème fraîche
• 150 ml milk
• butter

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

…with xxxx variation options!

This recipe is just a quick guide. It can be combined and swapped with so many other ingredients. There’s also a vegetarian version, of course. Just leave out the meat and serve with freshly baked Italian flatbread and a smooth white wine. Heat 8 tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole dish (I always use a roasting pan because I can also put it on my wood-fired oven for searing. This saves me a lot of dishes). In the meantime, season the zucchini with salt and pepper and coat it in flour. The Viennese Griesler flour I recommend can of course be replaced with another, but I’ve found it works best for breading. I got this tip from a cooking school myself. Then fry the zucchini until golden brown on both sides, remove them, and place them on a paper towel to absorb the oil. Now I add the rest of the olive oil to the pan and season the minced meat with paprika (if my children are around, I only use sweet paprika), salt, and pepper. Then I fry it all until lightly browned, making sure there are no lumps. For the egg mixture, I put everything in a large bowl: eggs, cheese (again, you can vary this or mix it up according to taste), thyme, marjoram, basil, crème fraîche, milk, and garlic (if you have guests who don’t like garlic, you can reduce the amount or simply omit it. But feel free to experiment with a little. Most people won’t notice and will end up surprised that they’ve eaten something with garlic that they like). Whisk everything together. I grease the sides of the pan with butter so that the casserole can be easily removed. Then you can top the minced meat with the zucchini, pour the egg mixture over it, and put it in the oven. In a wood-fired oven, about 25 minutes is enough for me. In a regular electric oven, set it to about 190°C (375°F) for about 35 minutes. Just keep an eye on the desired browning. I always make a batch at a time, as it reheats wonderfully or tastes great served cold.