-
1
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
-
2
Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way.
-
3
Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.
-
4
Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash.
-
5
As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.
-
6
On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.
-
7
Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables.
-
8
You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.
-
9
Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper.
-
10
Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem.
-
11
Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.
-
12
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside.
-
13
Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp.
-
14
They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
