Tag: Zucchini

grilled zucchini

zucchini grilled vegetables

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This recipe is so easy it’s sort of embarrassing to call it a recipe, but since it’s how we eat 90% of our zucchini (yes, it’s that good), I figured I should put it in here! It’s great an as appetizer, in sandwiches, alongside soups, on toast, or for lunch alongside an avocado toast with balsamic vinaigrette and pickled red onions. See the suggestion below for the zucchini strips rolled around soft goat cheese.

several small or medium zucchinis (use more than you think you could possibly eat)
olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt

Heat a grill to very hot. Slice the zucchini lengthwise, into planks a little less than ¼” thick. Toss them with olive oil and salt. Turn the grill down to medium, and grill them about 3 minutes on each side, until they have grill marks and are nice and tender. Eat them right away or else eat them later at room temperature. Try not to eat them all right as they come off the grill, or the rest of your family will be annoyed.

You can also roll the hot zucchini slices around little gobs of soft goat cheese for fancy appetizers. Then you’ll really be in trouble if you eat them all by yourself!

zucchini skillet cakes with capers and pine nuts

capers zucchini eggs bread crumbs pine nuts

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Usually we grill our zucchini (see the previous recipe), but when I want to do something different and special, I make this recipe, modified from a recipe in Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. These skillet cakes have great flavor from the lemon zest, capers, pine nuts and thyme. I like to serve them with the beet pilaf with dill and a little pile of fresh peas with scallions.

If you have a food processor, this recipe is very fast—if you don’t, just grate and chop everything by hand.

2 garlic cloves
½ bunch parsley
3 teaspoons chopped thyme
3-4 slices of stale bread (whole-grain, if possible), or 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs
4 medium zucchinis (about 2 pounds)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons snipped chives or scallion greens
grated zest of one lemon
¼ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet
¼ cup capers, rinsed and drained
2 eggs, beaten
olive oil for frying

1. Toss the garlic into the bowl of a food processor and chop it up.
2. Add the parsley and thyme into the food processor and chop finely. Scrape the garlic-herb mixture into a bowl.
3. Tear the bread slices into pieces, put them into the bowl of the food processor and grind into fine bread crumbs. Transfer 1 cup of crumbs to the bowl with the garlic and herbs.
4. Switch to the grating attachment and grate the zucchini. Put the zucchini in a separate medium bowl and toss it with a teaspoon of salt. Set it aside for 30 minutes to an hour while you prepare the rest of the ingredients and other parts of your meal. Then rinse the zucchini in a colander and squeeze out as much moisture as you can.
5. Toss the zucchini with the bread crumb mixture, chives, lemon zest, pine nuts and capers. Taste for salt and pepper and season accordingly. Then add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
6. Film a large griddle or 2 large skillets with olive oil. When hot, add the batter in ½-cup mounds. Squish the batter down flat with the back of a spatula and cook over medium heat until golden-brown. Flip and cook the other side. Serve right away, or keep warm in the oven until all are done.
7. You can reheat these the next day by putting them back in a hot skillet and flipping a few times until they are hot.

summer vegetable and potato “pie”

tomatoes potatoes zucchini red peppers

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It’s not actually a pie at all, except that it’s got a bottom layer of potato slices that acts like a crust. I love to make this recipe in the peak of our growing season, because of all the perfect Alaskan produce that can go into it. You can get the potatoes, garlic, herbs, zucchinis, and tomatoes from the farmers’ market! It makes such a difference to use those beautiful Alaskan Butterball potatoes,they are sweet and yummy, and brown up so nicely.
If the weather is warm, serve this with any green salad. But if it’s cold and rainy, it’s also great with green soup of sorrel, beet greens, and lettuce. This recipe is based on one from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. If you have a truly huge skillet (with a lid), you can double this recipe like I do—it makes great leftovers and can be served warm or at room temperature.

1 pound waxy potatoes (like Butterball)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
a handful of herbs, like parsley and basil or rosemary
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 zucchinis
2 roasted red peppers, cut into ½” strips (see the “red pepper” section for recipe)
2 cups small tomatoes, halved

1. Scrub the potatoes and slice them into ¼” rounds. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a skillet over low heat, add the potatoes, stir them to coat with oil, then spread them evenly over the pan. Scatter a third of the garlic and herbs over the potatoes, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Add a layer of the onion, follow with the zucchini, and top with more garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Add the pepper strips with the remaining garlic and herbs, then the tomatoes. Dribble any juice left from the roasted peppers on top, plus 3 tablespoons water. Raise the heat just enough to get the water bubbling, then cover the pan and reduce the heat to low.
3. Cook until the vegetables are tender, 25 minutes or more (stab with a paring knife to check). Remove the lid, raise the heat, and reduce the excess liquid by simmering gently for a few minutes. If there is a LOT of liquid, you can pour a portion of it off (carefully) into a separate pan and boil it down for a little while until it reduces and thickens (be careful not to let it burn). Then pour it back over the pie, along with a drizzle of olive oil over the top.
4. If you have time to let the pie sit for 20 or 30 minutes, it melds the flavors and sets the pie up nicely, making it MUCH easier to slice.

zucchini & tomato gratin

tomatoes onions zucchini gratin caramelized onions

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This recipe is exactly what to do with the big, beautiful zucchinis you can find at the Farmers’ Market! This dish is just fantastic—savory from the thyme, sweet from the onions, and just delicious from the really fresh zucchinis and tomatoes. The recipe was inspired by a recent Cook’s Illustrated recipe, although simplified. It’s easier than lasagna but I think tastes just as good (maybe even better)!

The salting and draining is necessary to keep the gratin from being soupy. It really works—after you take it out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes, it slices nicely without making a big lake on your plate.

3 pounds zucchini, ends trimmed and sliced into ¼-inch thick rounds
sea salt or kosher salt
2-3 large ripe tomatoes, about 1 pound
olive oil
3-4 medium onions, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly, pole to pole (about 5 or 6 cups)
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
2 slices hearty bread (I prefer whole wheat sourdough)
2 medium shallots, minced (or substitute minced onion)

1. Coat a 13x9-inch baking dish with olive oil; set aside.
2. Toss zucchini slices with 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl; transfer to a colander and let sit for about 45 minutes to let plenty of liquid drain out.
3. Toss tomato slices with ½ teaspoon salt in a bowl, and let sit for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, ½ teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened and golden-brown, about 15 minutes. Set the onions aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
6. Drain the zucchini thoroughly.
7. Combine garlic, 3 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon pepper, and thyme in a small bowl. In large bowl, toss zucchini with the garlic mixture, then arrange in overlapping rows in the baking dish. Arrange caramelized onions in an even layer over zucchini.
8. Drain the tomatoes in the colander, then arrange the slices in a single layer on top of the onions. Bake until vegetables are tender and tomatoes are starting to brown around the edges, 40 to 45 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, process bread in food processor until finely ground.  You should have about 1 ½ cups of crumbs. Combine bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and shallots in a medium bowl. Remove baking dish from the oven and sprinkle bread crumb mixture evenly on top of tomatoes. Bake gratin until bubbling and the bread crumbs are nicely browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

lemony sautéed zucchini with capers

capers zucchini lemon bread crumbs pine nuts

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This recipe is a really quick way to use up a lot of zucchini! It’s a combination of 1) the flavors from the zucchini skillet cakes in my 2008 Farmers’ Market Cookbook, and 2) a method of quick-cooking zucchini that I found in a long-ago issue of Cooks’ Illustrated. Zucchini is so full of water that it’s hard to deal with all the liquid that comes out of it—the zucchini usually gets soggy and it’s hard to make sure all the pieces are cooked evenly. So using this method, you grate the zucchini and then roll it in a dishtowel and wring out the extra water! It’s a fast and easy recipe--easier than the skillet cakes.

You can choose your topping on this recipe—use either the toasted pine nuts, or the slightly more involved garlicky bread crumbs. Whatever suits your time frame and fancy!

4 medium-large zucchinis (about 3 pounds), grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
½ bunch parsley, finely chopped
3 teaspoons chopped thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
3 tablespoons scallion greens
grated zest of a lemon
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ cup capers, rinsed and drained

choice of toppings

¼ cup pine nuts
OR
bread crumbs:
2 slices whole wheat bread (you can use stale bread, but not dried hard)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

1. Placing a quarter or a third of the grated zucchini in a dish towel, roll the towel up around the zucchini, and, using two hands, twist the towel as tightly as you can (over the sink) and watch the water pour out! Shake the zucchini out into a large bowl, and repeat with the rest of the zucchini.
2. If you’ve chosen bread crumbs for the topping, tear the bread slices into smallish pieces and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse and grind them until they are finely ground into bread crumbs. Use 1 cup of them or more for this recipe.  Brown the bread crumbs in olive oil (with optional garlic) in a small skillet over medium heat. Remove from the heat when browned, toss in a little salt to taste, and set aside.
3. If you’ve chosen pine nuts for the topping, toast them gently in a dry skillet until golden.
4. Heat the olive oil over high heat in a large skillet and sauté the garlic slices until fragrant—a minute or so. Add the grated, dried zucchini and sauté until tender, about 8 or 10 minutes. You can cover the pan in between stirring to hurry this process.
5. Add the parsley, thyme, chives or scallions, lemon zest, ½ teaspoon salt, and capers. Cook for a minute or so longer until the flavors are melded and the parsley is slightly wilted. Taste for salt and pepper and season accordingly.
6. Serve in a large dish or on individual plates, adding the topping of your choice. Serve immediately.