Clafoutis aux Courgettes a Savoury Vegetarian Casserole

The following recipe for a clafoutis aux courgettes (zucchini casserole),  turns a traditional Provencal dessert into a savoury dish that is suitable for vegetarians. You can experiment with the fillings, depending on what is available, or in Jackie’s case growing in your garden.

“While flicking through a feature on clafoutis in a French cookery magazine recently, I was intrigued to find several recipes for savoury clafoutis amongst the more familiar cherry, apricot and plum versions.  Reading on I was keen to find out how a savoury clafoutis differs from the provençal tian, a traditional, vegetable gratin dish with five key elements – rice, cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs and vegetables.

One of the things I love about a tian is its frittata-like texture which makes it light yet satisfying with the inclusion of the rice.” Read more about this gluten-free, vegetarian dish here.

Note: You can serve this zucchini casserole for lunch, a light dinner or as a side dish.

Clafoutis aux Courgettes (Zucchini Casserole)

This easy casserole serves two hungry people and I recommend partnering it with a fresh, tomato salad. You will need a 20cm frying pan.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Lunch Dish

Cuisine French, Provencal

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 medium zucchinis (courgettes) sliced into rounds
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 tbsp rosemary chopped
• 6 eggs beaten
• 50 ml milk
• 75 g brown rice flour or other gluten-free flour
• 150 g goat cheese 1/2 of log sliced into rounds
• 50 g Emmental cheese grated
• olive oil for frying

Instructions

 

• Fry the courgette slices in some olive oil until they are lightly browned and softened, adding the garlic as the courgettes begin to soften.
• While the courgettes are cooking, mix the flour, rosemary and ¾ of the Emmental together in a bowl with a pinch of salt and a couple of turns of the black pepper grinder.
• Make a well in the middle of the bowl and gradually add the beaten egg, whisking until the mixture becomes a smooth batter.
• Add the batter to the courgettes in the frying pan and place the sliced goat’s cheese on the top.
• Sprinkle with the remaining Emmental.
• Cook the clafoutis on the stove-top on a medium heat for five minutes or until the mixture starts to brown around the edges.
• Finish off under a medium-to-high grill until the top is golden brown.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Sweet Clafoutis:

A cherry clafoutis (clafoutis aux cerises) is a classic dessert that you are bound to see on menus and dinner tables in Provence during the cherry season. However, there are plenty of sweet variations with other fruit.

Paula makes her’s with muscat grapes (recipe here).

Jane adds ground almonds to her clafoutis recipe to add some texture.

Jackie Dyer

Jackie is a freelance Human Resources Consultant, based in the UK, and a regular visitor to France where she has a small home. A resident of Nice during the 1990s, Jackie recently started a blog called Pesto and Pistou to record all the things she loves about the food, wine and atmosphere of the Côte d’Azur and its neighbouring Italian region of Liguria. In her spare time, Jackie runs wine tasting events for small groups, having studied for wine qualifications while working for an independent wine merchant that specialises in importing French wines, including some of Provence’s most iconic gems. With a plethora of Provençal cookbooks in a library that keeps growing, she likes nothing more than to sit down with a glass of Côtes de Provence to ‘investigate all things foodie from Nice to Genoa and beyond’.

Visit Pesto & Pistou here so Jackie can tempt you with a taste of the Côte d'Azur