Food can be Art

CHOPPING FOOD is being creative, to me anyway.
Deciding which flavors can live together happily - complementing each other well - is very similar to adding color to a canvas.
So today, remembering all of the Walla Walla (sweet!) onions I had bought, I decided to layer Yukon gold potatoes, the onions, and zucchini from our garden and bake them all together in the oven.
I decided to incorporate basil with the zucchini and since I had walnuts, I thought they would go well with the basil.

I know it's usually pine nuts, but there you go. Change about!

Throughout the dish is olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Just can't live without those things. I left out garlic. Don't know why. Didn't feel like dealing with it, I suppose. Thought it might overpower the other flavors.
Oh, I just noticed the Manchego cheese slice. It's grated up in there too - a little in each layer.
On top I drizzled more olive oil, grated the remainder of the cheese and topped everything with Italian bread crumbs.
It's all cooking in the oven now, covered with parchment, and the bottom layer is bubbling.

I wish I could describe the smell, but I'm betting you can imagine it.
When I get a headache the best cure is cooking. Something about the distraction of it all: blending, binding, trying not to slice off fingers.
Olive oil, olive oil, olive oil. Imagine the fortune one might have made importing it early on and opening America's eyes to how wondrous a thing it is! Better (well, almost) than stocking up on Microsoft stock or Intel - femminismo

p.s. Finished portion. (not big enough) Hate to brag, but this tastes delicious hot out of the oven. Zucchini on top browned, Yukon potatoes held up (not too soft, not too hard) and the basil was an inspiration. Glad I didn't leave that out. Bon appetit, whatever you have for lunch or dinner!