Zucchini, sage & scamorza terrine

Today is another Monthly Mingle over at Meeta's What's For Lunch Honey?
After Football's coming home, Big on Barbecue, Beat the Heat and Holiday Cuisine, of which I've missed all but the latter, I wrecked my brain over what to contribute to this round. Truth be told, zucchine (or courgettes, as we call them here - in Britain, there's a French word for everything!) don't feature much on my menu, even though I actually like them. Maybe I was fed too many of them deep-fried, sort of tempura-style, when I was young, as my Mum loverd to grow them in the vegetable garden (to Tchernobyl sizes that would have won any gardening contest!), but always got a stomach ache from them, so my brother and I were left to devour 5 kg of squash in one go every once in a while...
In a recent edition of Elle à Table, I came across a reader's recipe for this terrine - and after the usual tampering with the original, here's what I came up with: a savoury omelette cake, using grated zucchine and sage, as well as a generous helping of grated scamorza (smoked mozzarella) cheese. A great brunch offering as it can be prepared the day before, then re-heated, or just as good taken along for an autumnal picnic. Served with oven-roast tomatoes and crusty bread, you can also enjoy this as a light lunch or a starter... but it's bound to become your favourite new way of using up your courgette harvest!
For more zucchini & sage recipes, check Meeta's blog for the round-up soon!

Zucchini, sage & scamorza terrine
(yields 8-10 slices, serves 4 as light lunch)

600 g zucchini (courgette, squash)
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic (peeled)
10 sage leaves (chopped)
2 tbsp olive oil
5 medium eggs
100 ml single cream
200 g scamorza cheese (smoked mozzarella)
20 cocktail tomatoes on the vine

Preheat the oven to 200 C.
Peel the onion and grate on a cheese grater, roughly. Make sure you don't apply too much pressure so it doesn't "bleed" to much. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the onion (and any juices from it) and crush in the garlic. Add the chopped sage, then fry until browning and soft.
In the meantime, wash the zucchine thoroughly, then roughly grate. Add to the pan and cook for about 15 minutes on high heat to get rid of all the liquid forming, until the zucchini start turning  brown. You want them so be softened, but retaining a bit of bite. Season with salt and pepper and leave to cool a little.
Beat the eggs with the single cream and season to taste. Roughly grate the scamorza and add to the eggs. Stir in the zucchini mix, then fill into a buttered loaf tin (ca. 10 x 20 cm) and pop into the oven.
Cook for 45 minutes, until set.
15 minutes before serving, place the tomatoes (on the vine) on the top shelf of the oven (preheated to 200 C) and roast until they are starting to brown and their skins pop.
Serve slices of the terrine with some tomatoes and crusty bread and enjoy while still warm.

Comments

[Meeta]

Johanna, this looks so delicious. In the picture the terrine looks light and fluffy. I am so glad I decided on these ingredients because I'll have that recipe in my own Mingle!
Thank you so much!

[Jeanne]

Looks heavenly - how can you resist sage and zucchini in the same dish? And a beautiful pic with the tomatoes too :-)

[Brilynn]

What an excellent creation!

[Isis]

This looks great. In my case it is not my mum who is growing courgettes but me. And I have frozen kilos to serve me in winter for soups and soups and soups and now this terrine.

[Julie O'Hara]

I think you may have managed to improve upon one of my favorite things, the frittata! Good idea and it looks beautiful too.

[Falbala]

Is Elle à Table made in english version. Because i'm french and i want to improve my english kitchen word by reading english magazine

[johanna]

Hi Falbala, there is no English version of Elle A Table, but there are other English magazines worth checking out... here are my favourites:
Delicious Magazine: for subscriptions, follow this link: https://secure2.subscribeonline.co.uk/DELI/login.cfm

Olive , here’s the link for subscriptions follow this link: https://secure2.subscribeonline.co.uk/bbcmagazines/subscription.cfm?cmp=OWEB1206&mag=OLIV

These are my favourite UK magazines, but there’s also
Fresh with an overseas subscription on this page: http://www.subscription.co.uk/home/mpurchase.asp?m=972&src=WEB1&ts=&tt=

And of course, there’s the beautiful donna hay magazine which you can subscribe to here: http://www.subscribenow.com.au/home/mpurchase.asp?m=10015&src=4027

Or the Australian Gourmet Traveller , try this link for subscriptions: http://www.isubscribe.com.au/title_info.cfm?prodID=947

hope this helps!