Summer Vegetable Stacks

In addition to the wonderful basil and zucchini that my mom gave us, she also gave us some eggplants and summer squash from her garden.

Since we are going up to Boothbay this weekend, I wanted to find a way to incorporate all of these summer vegetables in one dish because I knew they wouldn't be in the best condition by the time we returned home.  I've recently seen a lot of zucchini lasagna dishes that use thin slices of zucchini in lieu of the pasta.  Using this as an inspiration, I decided to make baked summer vegetable stacks.

First, I started out by slicing the eggplants and summer squash lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices.  Bret tossed the vegetable slices in olive oil with salt and pepper, and then...you guessed it, threw them on the grill.  My fiance is obsessed with grilling!

While the vegetables were on the grill, I gathered the rest of my ingredients - Maplebrook Farm Mozzarella and Bove's Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce.  Both of these are made in Vermont as I'm always happy to support local New England food products.

Of course, I also had to use some crushed red pepper flakes too!

When the vegetables had some nice grill marks, I warmed the oven up to 400 degrees and began preparing my vegetable stacks in a roasting pan that I had prepared with baking spray.  I put down a layer of the grilled eggplant and summer squash and then added a layer of sliced mozzarella.

I then spooned on a layer of the pasta sauce.

The last step was to add the crushed red pepper flakes before doing another layer of vegetables, mozzarella, sauce and crushed red pepper flakes.  I sprinkled the entire dish with some grated Parmesan cheese and then put the pan in the oven.

The summer vegetable stacks baked for about ten minutes and then were broiled on low for another five minutes.

The end result was a ridiculously messy but ooey gooey delicious meal.

My summer vegetable stacks were a cross between lasagna and eggplant parmesan....and absolutely perfect!  I'm looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

I've been cooking a lot more this weekend but I'm definitely looking forward to take a weekend off with some friends in Maine!

Tell me, what are you looking forward to this weekend?