This recipe grew out of a need for an easy, quick-prep vegetable dish I could throw together while gaming. I've always hated long recipe intros, so I won't put one here.
OVERVIEW
Prep - Quick, less than 10 minutes
Cook - 50 minutes, stir at 30
Serves - 3-4 as a main dish
You'll need - Squash, Garlic, Tomatoes, Beans, Parsley, Balsamic Vinegar, and basic pantry stuff
RECIPE
Start off by preheating the oven to 350f (or 175c if you know what a Tory is).
While you're preheating, mince up 6 cloves of garlic, and toss them into a large mixing bowl with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 more of balsamic vinegar, half a teaspoon of dried oregano, a healthy pinch of pepper flakes, a few good grinds of salt, and a few more of pepper. Mix that together with a fork or a fat spoon, whatever's handy.
Toss in about 2 cups of cherry tomatoes; you don't need to cut them up unless they're truly enormous. They'll break down in the oven and transform into tasty blobs of wonderful. You can use regular tomatoes if that's what you've got instead - just cut them into cherry-tomato-sized chunks.
Next comes the zucchini, or yellow squash if that's what you have instead. They both cook and taste about the same, so don't pay too much attention to their color. Folks could learn a lot about racism from the humble squash. Whichever squash you're using, chop up 3-4 of them (about 5 cups) into cherry-tomato sized chunks.
The dish needs some protein, so you'll add beans for that. Add in one can of beans - you can use cannellini or great northern beans; if you don't have ether, chickpeas can work instead.
Mix that all together in the bowl with your balsamic mixture so it's all coated, then tip it into a deep (ideally Pyrex) baking dish - the sort of thing you'd use to cook a lasagna. If you've got a lid, you can do all of this ahead of time and stash it in the fridge for a day or so. If you don't have a lid you can do that anyway, but your kitchen life will taste of garlic.
Pop the dish into the oven when you're ready, and pull it out after about 50 minutes. You want the tomatoes to start collapsing in on themselves, mixing their acidity with the balsamic to break down the beans and squash.
If you've got time, you can stir it up halfway through to ensure everything gets a chance to swim around in the bottom of the dish, but it isn't critical.
When you pull it out, top with some chopped parsley to taste if you've got it handy. Scoop into bowls and enjoy!
NOTES
On the temperature. 375 works too, if you're trying to cook this together and match another dish at the same time; just shorten the cook time to about 25-30 minutes if you go that route. There's enough water in these veggies that they'll take a lot of abuse before they burn, but that also means you don't want to cook them alongside anything that should be crispy, or you'll steam out the other dish.
Add veggies. There's room in here for additional veggies - I might suggest some shredded kale, diced (small) shallot, or quartered button mushrooms. Spinache works too, though I would add it in the last 10 or 20 minutes, stirring it in.
Add beans. There's also room here for another can of beans, if you want to push the protein up a bit more and aren't "feeling fishy."
Feeling fishy? My wife isn't a fan of sardines so I cook this without them (as above). I love those fishy little fuckers though, so I tip a (drained) can into my own bowl and then serve this (still hot) right on top of them. Complements the Italian flavor profile wonderfully and turns the whole into a sort of fish and vegetable stew.