It’s that time of year. Again. Neighbors furtively slipping their excess zucchini harvest onto your front porch, before dashing back home. These are the times that try cooks’ souls: what to do with all the excess zucchini baggage.
Luckily tomatoes are peaking now, and they provide excellent camouflage for zucchini: https://www.eatyourselfskinny.com/summer-zucchini-tomato-gratin/
What are we to do with all the zucchini? It doesn’t look very nice on the windowsill – the many tomatoes in varying stages of ripening are much more attractive. With school starting soon it is time to say good–bye to summer, and to turn on the oven, as you rid yourself of demon zucchini.
An elegant galette is a good way to start your purge. The crust is easy and forgiving, and it is soothing to lay out all the zucchini rings in ever widening circles. You will look very competent and trustworthy. And then you can start to spring these other surprises on the unsuspecting. If you have a garden, you have been harvesting tomatoes with a greedy heart, thinking about the jars of spaghetti sauce you will enjoy this winter. But what about that ever-rising green mountain of zucchini? You need to put on your thinking cap, and find some creative culinary solutions. https://www.purewow.com/recipes/zucchini-ricotta-galette-recipe
That one packet of seeds you planted can probably take care of a family of four from now until next planting season. The prospects are daunting. But do you want to be the formerly favorite aunt who brings zucchini ginger cupcakes to the picnic at the lake? Not if you want those kids taking care of you in your old age! They never forget so-called “gourmet” baking experiments, or deliberate kid slights. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Zucchini-Ginger-Cupcakes-1222207
Do not be this person. Do not be a vegetable sneak. Those fourth grade girls will make your life a living hell, and I will pay them to do it! Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies https://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-chip-zucchini-cookies-61402
Instead, be like Nigella. Warm, earthy, sweet and flavorful. And perhaps you will develop a cute British accent. Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Chip Cookies https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-cookies
Nobody is fooled by zucchini bread. Least of all the small children into whom you are trying to cram healthy vegetables. You might fool them once, but never twice. Here is one recipe for you to try, you shameless exploiter of small children. Lemon Zucchini Bread: https://www.lemontreedwelling.com/2017/03/lemon-zucchini-bread.html
One of the best ways to reduce your zucchini surplus is to invite unsuspecting houseguests. Breakfast is usually a good time for a surprise zucchini onslaught. The white wine from last night isn’t out of their systems yet, and the coffee hasn’t kicked in. They will need food. A hot and cheesy frittata, please. If they were raised to have minimally good manners, they will eat whatever is placed in front of them, and then they will ask for seconds, and also for a copy of your recipe. Print the recipe in advance, so you look gracious and artfully prepared. Ina Garten’s Zucchini and Gruyere Frittata Squares https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/zucchini-and-gruyere-frittata-squares-5505844
It has been a record year in our neighborhood for zucchini harvests. You should have a variety of zucchini recipes lined up: breakfast, lunch and dinner. You are going to be working on a veritable squash assembly line. And you will look back fondly on these wacky summer zucchini days when you are scraping ice off your windshield come February. Really.
Breakfast: Thank you, Food52, Lemon Zucchini Pancakes https://food52.com/recipes/17054-lemon-zucchini-pancakes-with-a-heart-of-brie
Lunch: Thanks to A Spicy Perspective, Zucchini and Green Chutney Salad https://www.aspicyperspective.com/zucchini-and-green-chutney-salad/
Dinner: Cooking to impress, from Sur la Table – Baked Sole Roulades https://www.surlatable.com/product/REC-204/Baked+Sole+Roulades+with+Zucchini+Stuffing
Get cracking!
“Vegetables cooked for salads should always be on the crisp side, like those trays of zucchini and slender green beans and cauliflowerets in every trattoria in Venice, in the days when the Italians could eat correctly.”
― M.F.K. Fisher
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