'Briam' baked potatoes with courgettes

I was looking for a vegetarian recipe in Sofia Souli's The traditional Greek cookery book, which I bought when we went to Greece, and I found this one. There is no protein in it whatsoever so we ate it with smoked salmon we had in the fridge. I guess it may go very well as a side dish to a fish dish, perhaps baked fish and the oven can be used for both recipes at the same time.

I didn't realise how much it would make. It calls for a medium sized baking tin but I cooked it in my biggest ovenproof tray and it was filled all the way up!

I think it needs more tomatoes, garlic and parsley. I made 3 layers of ingredients but only had enough of these for 2 layers so below I have increased the quantities to match the amount of potatoes and courgettes.

Serves: 8 persons (side dish).

Ingredients:

• 1kg potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 1kg courgettes, skin on and sliced
• 1kg tomatoes
• 9 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• big bunch of parsley (2 x 30g supermarket bag), finely sliced
• olive oil to taste
• salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Skin the tomatoes and mince. I was lazy and all I did was to slice the tomatoes. However, I realised that the tomatoes on the bottom layer were more cooked and imparted a better taste to the other vegetables than the tomatoes on the top layer, which were still whole. So my advice would be to follow what the recipe calls for: skin and mince. It doesn't ask to remove the seeds do don't bother.
2. Spread one layer of potatoes, salt & pepper to taste. I added olive oil to the bottom to avoid the potatoes sticking. I only overlapped the vegetables on the last layer as I was running out of space but, on hindsight, I should have done it from the beginning.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. On top, spread a layer of courgettes, salt & pepper to taste.
   
   
   
4. Spread ⅓ of the garlic and parsley on top.
   
   
   
5. Spread ⅓ of the minced tomato on top. I did not mince the tomatoes but please do.
   
   
   
6. Keep adding layers in turn: potatoes, courgettes, garlic, parsley, tomatoes, seasoning both potatoes and courgettes with salt & pepper to taste. This is when I started overlapping the vegetables.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Salt & pepper the top and spread plenty of olive oil evenly. The recipe calls for water but I do not think it needs it as the vegetables will release water.
   
   
   
8. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour. It didn't say how hot the oven should be. I used 180°C and it was cooked after 1 hour.