Have you started sneaking zucchini onto your neighbors’ front porches under the cover of night yet? If you have a garden, you have been harvesting tomatoes with an greedy heart, thinking about jars of spaghetti sauce you will enjoy this winter. But what about that ever-expanding green mountain of zucchini? If your neighbors are hiding behind their lace curtains when you come tippy-toeing up their front walks, then you need to put on your thinking cap, and find some creative culinary solutions. Zucchini fest!
Nobody is fooled by zucchini bread. Least of all small children into whom you are trying to stuff 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 a copy of your recipe. Print the recipe in advance, so you look gracious and artfully prepared. And send a thank you bread and butter note to the New York Times. Frittata with Zucchini, Goat Cheese and Dill. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013528-frittata-with-zucchini-goat-cheese-and-dill?mcubz=3
Labor Day is over, and hurricane season is upon us, but it is still warm in the evenings, so it is still seasonally appropriate to serve salad as a main course. Luckily this recipe takes care of a pound and a half of those pesky zucchini. Plus it uses up those four ears of perfect corn that you couldn’t resist at the last minute on your prowl through the farmers’ market. Efficiency! Seasonal vegetables! Pretty zucchini blossoms! Martha will envy you. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/corn-and-zucchini-salad-with-feta-51242120
You might be running low on friends and dinner invitations by now. But just in case your iPhone vibrates with a sudden text to come next door for an impromptu drink, consider having a quart (or two) of Sichuan Pickles on hand to bring along. Your friends won’t suspect anything, since you won’t be clutching a large brown paper bag while edging furtively into their house. This is a glorious host-y gift, particularly if you package it nicely. Think green garden twine, and Mason jars, and vintage labels. Lovely. https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/sichuan-pickles
I have been sweater shopping. It’s ridiculous, I know. It’s going to be in the high 70s and low 80s next week. And I have also been thinking about socks, and long pants. I guess I am really ready for a change in the weather, and the first day of autumn. Thursday can’t get here quickly enough for me. So this weekend I am going to pull out the stock pot, and make a vat o’soup, and use up another couple of pounds of zucchini. Please join us. I have some very special pickles to share with you, too. And don’t forget to take a loaf of zucchini bread home with you. There’s one over on the table by the front door, tucked in a big brown paper bag of homegrown zucchini. It was so nice to have you over!
Zucchini Soup à la The River Café
Serves 4
Ingredients:
• 2 1/4 pounds zucchini
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 small bunch basil, chopped
• 1 small bunch parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• salt and pepper
Crouton:
6 slices Ciabatta bread, cut at an angle
2 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Directions:
1. Cut the zucchini lengthwise into quarters, then into 1 inch pieces. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and cook the garlic and
zucchini very slowly over low heat until the zucchini is brown and quite soft (around 25 minutes).
2. Add salt, pepper, and stock, and simmer for a few minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Put three-quarters of the zucchini into a food processor and puree. Return the puree to the pan and add the cream, basil, parsley and
Parmesan.
To make crouton, toast the bread on both sides. Rub garlic on the toasted bread, and drizzle with olive oil. Tear into massive chunks, and drop artfully onto soup, in individual bowls. Enjoy!
Zucchini Soup, adapted from The River Café Cook Book, by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers
“The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini. Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables. At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake as more and more zucchinis erupt.”
-Dave Barry
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