На даче мы запекли баклажан и кабачок в духовке.

With дача (“country house,” “summer cottage,” or the property around it), Russian normally uses на, not в, when talking about being there.

• на даче = at the dacha / out at the country house
• This is just the standard idiomatic choice in Russian.

Compare:

• на даче — at the dacha
• в доме — in the house

So на даче does not literally mean “on the dacha”; it is simply how Russian expresses the idea of being at that place.

Дача is a very common Russian word for a country house or summer cottage, often with a small garden or plot of land. It is not quite the same as just house.

For many learners, the easiest way to understand it is:

• дача = a place outside the city where people go to relax, garden, or spend weekends/summers

So На даче suggests a familiar cultural setting: “at the country cottage.”

Запекли is the past tense plural form of the perfective verb запечь / запекать (“to bake,” “to roast,” “to cook by baking”).

Here it is perfective, which means the action is viewed as completed:

• мы запекли = we baked / we baked and finished it

If you used the imperfective запекали, it would sound more like:

• we were baking
• we used to bake
• we baked (focusing on the process, not the completed result)

In this sentence, the completed action is the natural choice.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree in gender and number, not in person.

For запечь, the past tense forms are:

• запёк — he baked
• запекла — she baked
• запекло — it baked
• запекли — they baked / we baked

Because the subject is мы (“we”), Russian uses the plural past ending -ли:

• мы запекли

A useful detail: in past tense, the form itself does not show person clearly. Запекли could mean we baked or they baked, depending on context. That is one reason мы is included here.

They are in the accusative case, but for inanimate masculine singular nouns, the accusative often looks exactly like the nominative.

So:

• nominative: баклажан, кабачок
• accusative: баклажан, кабачок

Because both nouns are:

• masculine
• singular
• inanimate

the form does not visibly change.

That is why:

• запекли баклажан и кабачок

means “baked an eggplant and a zucchini.”

Because the sentence means one eggplant and one zucchini.

• баклажан = one eggplant
• кабачок = one zucchini / one courgette

If you wanted plural, you would say:

• баклажаны и кабачки = eggplants and zucchini/courgettes

So the singular tells you the speakers baked one of each.

They are two different vegetables:

• баклажан = eggplant (US) / aubergine (UK)
• кабачок = zucchini (US) / courgette (UK)

A small warning: кабачок can also mean a small tavern or pub in other contexts, but here, because of the food context, it clearly means the vegetable.

В духовке means in the oven.

Here:

• в = in
• духовке = prepositional singular of духовка (“oven”)

After в when expressing location, Russian uses the prepositional case:

• в духовке — in the oven
• compare: в доме — in the house

So the sentence literally says they baked the vegetables in the oven.

Yes. Russian word order is flexible.

This sentence starts with На даче to set the scene first:

• На даче мы запекли баклажан и кабачок в духовке.
• “At the dacha, we baked an eggplant and a zucchini in the oven.”

This sounds natural because it gives the location first.

Other possible orders are also correct, for example:

• Мы запекли баклажан и кабачок в духовке на даче.
• Мы на даче запекли баклажан и кабачок в духовке.

The meaning stays basically the same, but the emphasis shifts slightly.

Sometimes yes, but here мы is helpful.

Russian often omits subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context. However, in the past tense, запекли by itself could mean:

• we baked
• they baked

So if the context does not already make the subject obvious, keeping мы makes the sentence clearer.

That is why мы sounds completely natural here.

Not exactly.

• запечь / запекать = to bake/roast something, often meaning to cook it in the oven until done, sometimes with emphasis on the finished baked result
• испечь / печь = to bake, often used for bread, cakes, pies, and baked goods

For vegetables in the oven, запекли is the more natural choice.

Examples:

• испечь пирог — bake a pie
• запечь картошку — bake/roast potatoes
• запечь баклажан — bake/roast an eggplant

So in this sentence, запекли fits the food and cooking method very well.