Food Friday: Summertime Squashapalooza!

Summer squash season is upon us.

Luke, the wonder dog, and I were making our rounds and were trotting through the neighborhood the other morning when we stumbled over, and were practically engulfed and taken hostage by, a Suddenly Seymour-sized squash plant that had suddenly shot out over the sidewalk. There were dozens of blossoms and many ropes of grasping, tangled shoots. I do not know how long it took this plant to cultivate the tendrils that made this obstacle that threatened our daily walk, but I suspect it was the growth spurt of only a few short days. (It might be related to kudzu!) It was branching out from the narrow confines of its garden bed, with grandiose dreams of glory and conquest of oblivious pedestrians. There is no escape from the neighborhood summer squash.

Summer squash are little different from the winter root cellar squash. Winter squash take longer to grow, and tend to have thicker skins. The thinner summer skins make for an easier time in the kitchen or out back by the grill – very little peeling is necessary. Thank heavens! It’s so hot that we need to save our ever-waning strength for lifting restorative ice cube-clinking glasses of lemonade to our parched lips.

Here is a handy dandy squash guide: https://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

Crayon colors rules the day with summer squash. It is time for the sunshine brightness of yellow squash, yellow zucchini and yellow straightneck squash. They are tender and good for raw squash salads. Yellow crookneck squash is always amusing and slightly more dense. Think about grilling these – jobs that you will delegate to your grill master. Of course. And then we sidle over to the cuter, plumper round squashes. And then there is the elephant in the room – the vast and innumerable greenness of many, many zucchini.

Butternut squash is a variety that is available all year ’round. Jamie Oliver is his never-less-than-perfectly-amiable Jamie Oliver fashion suggests a nice penne pasta solution: https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/gennaro-s-butternut-squash-pancetta-penne/

Bon Appétit stops the squash dead in its tracks with a ricotta-stuffed squash blossom: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/ricotta-stuffed-squash-blossoms

You can tiptoe out the back door and pick the blossoms early in the morning before the rest of the plant is stirring. Squash blossoms always look so summery and pretty, a natural progression from putting garden nasturtiums in your salads.

For a seasonal appetizer Bon Appétit also suggest a Grilled Summer Squash Baba Ghanoush, which is worth preparing if only for the delight in rolling “Baba Ghanoush” around in your mouth. It almost sounds like a missing Marx Brother: Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Baba Ghanoush… https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/grilled-summer-squash-baba-ghanoush

If our neighbor’s energetic squash plant is any indication of the manifest destiny of summer squash, you had best have a variety of squash 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 squash follies 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

Dinner – for the rest of us: No Cooking Required Zucchini-Potato Soup.
https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-potato-soup

“There is a tale…It tells of the days when a blight hung over our land. Nothing prospered. Nothing flourished. Not even zucchini would grow.”
― Cameron Dokey