Celebrity Veggies
Yes, I totally swiped this image off a Michelin starred chef’s site who was referring to them as his signature zucchini recipe. But here’s the thing, my mom was preparing her summer squash like this long before the restauranteur opened his first gig or authored a cookbook. Heck, he hadn’t even graduated from culinary school when my parents were plucking the tenders squash from their gardens before they grew into baseball bats. One year we went to the shore and when we returned Dad first thought they were watermelons they’d grown so big. Needless to say, Mom made lots of zucchini bread that year.
There are just as many ways to prepare zucchini as there are shapes, sizes and colors of the summer squash. My favorite were always the white scalloped patty pans we brought home from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Orrie’s gardens. I grew them for years in my own gardens until the last batch of seeds from a fancy heirloom seed purveyor failed to germinate. Now I go for the smaller green ones grown by one of my fellow vendors. I only grow summer squash for the blossoms as I love stuffed flowers. I’ll let some grow into baseball bats for chicken treats, too. Chickens make quick work of overgrown zucchini pecking them down to the outer rind in an afternoon. If there’s room in the freezer I’ll toss a few in for miserable hot days like the ones we’ve been suffering through. Even chickens deserve a cold treat.
Summer squash are the equivalent of a culinary Leatherman tool with a variety of ways in which it can be cooked. Steamed, fried, sautéed, stewed, baked, boiled, grilled, and even raw are the ways to get it on to the plate. Mom has just about every kitchen gadget known to man and she likes to make zoodles with a plastic contraption that turns zucchini into noodles, perfect for those cutting carbs. I’ll stick with my potato peeler for making wide thin strips that accomplish similar results and it’s easier to clean.
While I’m perfectly happy to toss chopped up pieces into the pan with whatever I’m cooking, you can take that lil’ ol’ summer squash to haute cuisine. Savory tarts with artistically styled ribbon of flesh or hollowed out zucch-canoes filled with crab or lobster if you really want to get decadent. And then there’s the classic 1970’s shredded zucchini casserole complete with chopped onions, shredded carrots, Cambell’s Cream of Mushroom, shredded cheese and seasoned croutons. If you’re not hip to canned soup, sautéed mushrooms and a cup of Greek yogurt or fresh ricotta cheese will work, too. You can get those ingredients at the market.
But if you’re insistent on dropping names and giving your summer squash dinner a pedigree, then by all means do. Just make sure you get all the ingredients—zucchini, pesto, burrata, olive oil, and fresh basil—at the farmers market because your vendors are the real rock stars.