I made the dish again, today, but I found some ambiguity in my recipe: Do I just oil the pan with avacado oil, or do I also drizzle it on top of all the ingredients (except the cheese) before baking? I didn't drizzle the oil, this time, because I didn't think about it until after it was done (but I sure would have had I thought about it sooner).
Also, I discovered that my gourd this year looked, smelled, tasted and felt different (all raw). It was perhaps a bit older than previous gourds I had tried; so, I seeded it before adding it to the pan. Anyway, I hope it still tastes good. It looked like it had softer, juicier, mushier (but not mushy) flesh. It smelled like a certain cleaner, a bit, instead of smelling how gourd leaves smell/vines.
Additionally, my summer savory had gone to seed and smelled a lot more like menthol, much as oregano is prone to smell. But, I added a lot of it anyway. Unlike ladt time, I cooked it the full forty minutes before adding cheese, and I didn't let the cheese get at all crispy.
I added an extra Aji Habanero pepper, since the gourd filled the pan a lot.
So, if this doesn't work out, then I'll have to try it with a younger gourd and summer savory such as I used last year (which possibly had already dropped its seeds).
Now it's just sitting for a while. It tastes better if you let it sit for a while after cooking before eating.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate:
BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet
Profile post