Seven at one blow - Mediterranean Feta and Tomato Bake

Do you know the Brothers Grimm? Yes, those German fairy tale guys. One of their tales is called “The Valiant Little Tailor” or “The Brave Little Tailor”. No! This post will not be about “The Valiant Little Cook” or “The Brave Little Cook”.

As the title suggests, the main character of this fairy tale is … fanfare … a tailor. The only link to food from this tale I like to tell you is more or less the beginning of that story. Well, this tailor is preparing to eat some jam as some flies settle on him. He kills seven of those nasty flies with one blow. He later then makes a belt describing the deed “Seven at one blow”. Quite satisfied and inspired, he sets out into the world to seek his fortune. In the course of this story, he is mistaken as a war hero, because of this inscription “Seven at one blow”, people thinking he killed seven men with one blow. The rest of the story you have to imagine for yourself or find it somewhere so you can read it.

Again no! This blog post is not about violence, not even in connection with killing flies in my kitchen, although I might have to do it once in a while for self-defence.

I rather like to concentrate on the “Seven at one blow” in a different sense. But first of all let us prepare some Mediterranean Feta and Tomato Bake.

The main characters of this food story (in order of appearance):

An unsuspecting 20 x 20 cm casserole dish

200 g of heroic feta cheese (sheep and goat will do)

Three sturdy shining tomatoes

Some harmless looking salt

Some fiery pepper

Olive oil – always on the run

Three sneaky cloves of garlic

One not quite so gigantic onion

Lots and lots of tiny little leaves of thyme

More olive oil

Some bread for cleaning up

Read on as the story unfolds:

Once upon a time (not thyme – not now – oh, that would have sounded great, though) an unsuspecting casserole dish was resting quietly in the kitchen as 100 g of sliced heroic feta cheese was making it’s way to conquer it. Along came one and a half sturdy shining tomatoes, which had just been sliced as well. As those were meeting up in the casserole dish some harmless looking salt and some fiery pepper was raining from above. Things even seemed to be pouring as olive oil was running into the dish.

Just a while later the brethren of the aforemention feta and tomatoes joined in. And as if things were not already been bad enough, three sneaky cloves of garlic entered the scene and … sneaked into the dish.

Around the corner one not quite so gigantic onion met her fate by a knife, which turned it into tiny little bits. Off they went into the casserole dish.

Instead of laughing at this tragedy, lots and lots of tiny little leaves of time stepped in to console the onion.

Once more salt and pepper and olive oil was raining.

Meanwhile, not far away from the scene, an oven was being heated up to 180°C to accommodate the casserole dish for 30 minutes.

After coming back to the light the dish directly went to the kitchen table to be cleaned up by some bread.

And they lived happily ever after … for sure NOT! You may have some leftovers, but normally all should be gone!

Now back to were we began: “Seven at one blow”!

1.     After some time (again not thyme) I met again my friend Daniel. We enjoyed a nice evening together with some good food and conversation. He provided me with the idea for this dish.

2.     I like cheese – you know about that.

3.     This recipe perfectly fits to the "One ingredient" challenge.

4.     I have quite a lot of thyme in my garden, which tries to take over everything. BUT … I fight back! No, it’s not that bad. It’s not a real fight. You should take it as a blessing and use it as good as possible.

5.     I just mentioned thyme. So this then qualifies this recipe for the Blog challenge “Herbs on Saturday” from “Lavender and Lovage”, which is hosted this month by Vanesther from “Bangers & Mash”.

 

7. It’s always great to have something nice to dunk your bread into.

Oops! You got me here. I skipped the number 6. Sorry, couldn’t think about anything particular. Well, no worries …

6. After a long day at work it is always good to have some nice and simple food, without having to much trouble in the kitchen.

That’s all folks! See thee! Toodle-oo! Eat happily ever after …