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This gorgeous Summer Vegetable Torte is a real show stopper! Better yet – it’s as delicious to eat as it is pretty to look at!
This Summer Vegetable Torte also happens to be a great way to cook with all of those ripe, luscious summer vegetables and those savory herbs that are growing like gangbusters in your backyard garden. It is similar to a crustless quiche or a frittata, and loaded with fantastic flavor.
Half-round slices of zucchini are salted and roasted so that they give up some of their liquid and also lightly caramelize. Then the slices are layered in a springform pan along with sautéed red onion, fresh garden cherry or grape tomatoes, plus garlic, fresh basil and oregano. Then a creamy egg and cheese custard is poured over the vegetables – then this Summer Vegetable Torte is baked until cooked through.
It bakes up firm, but still creamy and delicious. This Summer Vegetable Torte is surely one of my favorite ways to eat summer garden vegetables – and I think you’ll love it too!
What I also love about this Summer Vegetable Torte is that it feeds a crowd – so it’s perfect for a midsummer dinner party. It can be made ahead of time – then serve it at room temperature or warm it up slightly. (Any leftovers also reheat nicely – so you’ll have a wonderful lunch the next day!)
It can be served as a vegetarian main course with a side salad, or it can be served as a side dish alongside your favorite grilled meats.
This Summer Vegetable Torte recipe is based very loosely on a zucchini pie recipe we saw in a recent issue of Cooking Light magazine.
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Summer Vegetable Torte
Ingredients
3 pounds zucchini, ends trimmed and cut into quarter inch half circle slices, skin left on
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup red onion cut into small slices
1 pint sweet grape or cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh garlic minced
7 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (*see Note below)
1 cup mozzarella shredded
1 cup Parmesan freshly grated
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 dash hot sauce
Butter to grease 9” spring form pan
Instructions
Place the zucchini in a colander and coat with the one tablespoon of salt. Let sit for 30 minutes tossing occasionally.
While the zucchini is giving up its water, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Line a sheet pan with a rack.
After the zucchini sits for 30 minutes, rinse off the salt, drain and pat dry with a few paper towels.
Pour the zucchini slices onto the rack and place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove and cool.
Keep oven at 375 degrees F.
While the zucchini is drying out, in a large sauté pan over medium high heat, place two tablespoons of the olive oil and add the red onion. Sauté for three minutes.
Add the remaining oil along with the cut tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic and sauté until the tomatoes are starting to get soft, about 2-3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and cool.
In a large bowl, beat eggs with cream, milk, flour, mozzarella, Parmesan, salt, pepper and hot sauce.
Add cooled zucchini and cooled tomato mixture and gently stir.
Generously butter a 9” spring form pan and cover the bottom and outside with one piece of foil. The spring form pan WILL leak so make sure the foil covers the entire outside.
Place a rack over a pan (we used a round cooling rack on a round pizza pan) and place the spring form pan on top of the rack.
Pour the mixture into the buttered spring form pan and place in the oven for 50 minutes.
After 50 minutes, examine the top for browning and if the top is brown but the custard is not quite set, cover with foil for an additional 10-20 minutes or until a paring knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Don’t mistake a little water from the zucchini as uncooked custard. Ours took one hour and eight minutes. Once I pulled it from the oven, I kept the foil tightly over the top and it cooked for a few more minutes sitting outside the oven while it set up because the custard was a tiny bit loose in the center when I removed it from the oven.
Let set for 15 minutes before serving.
After 15 minutes, run a small thin knife blade around outside of the custard before releasing the spring form pan walls. Then cut into pie wedges right from the spring form bottom plate.
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Notes
*Note – we’ve made this with and without adding the flour. Without the flour, it is gluten free but bakes up with a little water that puddles on the top from the zucchini. (3-4 tablespoons so not a show stopper). With the flour, it bakes up firm.
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Would drying the zucchini in an air fryer be as effective as the oven? It’s 106 where I live. Too hot for the oven!
Hi Sue – We haven’t tried it ourselves, but I think it should work (probably on a smaller scale) – an air fryer is basically a small convection oven. Just watch the timing – I suspect it would cook much faster in the air fryer. Let us know how it comes out!
Excellent ideas
Thanks Kathy!
I’m wondering if the zucchini and the tomatoes could be done a day ahead of time?
Hi Ann – Yes – you can do the zucchini and tomato prep steps a day ahead.
Thank you!
Looks fantastic
have a couple of questions questions.
One can this be baked in a 9 by 13
number 2 do can you make it in advance and serve 2 days later
Hi Charlene – This can be baked in a 9×13. In terms of making it in advance, freshly baked would be best. As you probably know, the vegetables will start to soften and weep after sitting for a few days in the fridge so we’d suggest making it as close to serving as possible.
Fabulous! Great way to use bounty of zucchini. Delicious and beautiful presentation.
Thank you!
Can’t wait to try this
Hope you love it Susan!
Can’t wait to try this…I am having a potluck at my house tomorrow and have bought all the ingredients. I like the idea one person had of adding mushrooms as I have a whole bunch of morels that I picked this week. I have already made a quiche with them but it won’t hurt to add some to this lovely dish!
Sounds like a great addition Darcy. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I made this last weekend , it turned out great, followed the recipe exactly except for the cheese. I used some Monterey Jack, smoked Gouda and the Parmesan cheese since that’s what I had on hand. This was better the second day as well. Went great with a lemon grilled chicken breast. Definitely a keeper, next time adding mushrooms, Mmmm
Hi Lee – My apologies for the delay in responding – we just turned from a family vacation last night. Sounds like you made some great swaps – and adding mushrooms would be a great addition! Thanks for taking the time to write to us!
This looks delicious and so pretty. I want to make this for company this week. Can you use light cream, half and half or something else instead of heavy cream? Would it change the result of the recipe if you did?
Hi Gail – Absolutely, you can swap either in for the heavy cream. The texture might be a little softer but otherwise it shouldn’t change the recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
Thank you, cannot wait to make it!
Martha, this looks AMAZING! Now all I have to do is coax the million and one green-as-grass cherry and grape tomatoes I have on the vines to RIPEN! I’ve got PLENTY of summer squash and zucchini. Just pinned the recipe so I have it when I have all the ingredients-can’t wait to make this. 🙂
We hope you love the recipe Carol – and we hope your tomatoes ripen soon too! 🙂