ZUCCHINI SURPLUS?
5 freshways to enjoy summer squash, from skillet lasagna to harvest bowl
Less than thrilled about your prolific zucchini plants? Serves you right for planting more than one. Just kidding. We’re here to help.
By now, you’ve turned summer’s most over- ambitious plant into muffins, breads and enough grilled boats to sail a small army. Yet the weighty whoppers are still piling up on the kitchen counter, despite your best efforts at ding- dongdash gifting.
Fortunately, zucchini’s mild f lavor and adaptability also make it a lovely addition to tarts, pastas and grain bowls. All you need is a fresh perspective and a few nifty techniques from experts, like Milk Street’s Christopher Kimball, America’s Test Kitchen’s Julia Collin Davison
and chef Jessica Whiteman, the new executive chef at Berkeley’s veggie-centric Gather Kitchen, Bar & Market.
To start, invest in a 12-inch skillet with a tight-fitting lid and use it to make your pasta dishes from now on. Trust us.
“Once you get the hang of the skillet pasta method, your world opens up and you realize, ‘I could do this with any kind of pasta,’” Davison says.
Her current dish of choice is a light and bright skillet summer vegetable lasagna that is nothing like its heavy, cheese-laden cousin. The recipe, featured in “The Complete Summer Cookbook” (America’s Test Kitchen; $33), uses the liquid of canned tomatoes to cook the diced zucchini and yellow summer squash, as well as the pasta. It’s finished with dollops of ricotta and fresh, chopped basil.
“That’s a recipe that keeps on giving,” Davison says. “As long as the amount of liquid remains
sufficient to cook the pasta, you can use it to suit whatever’s coming in. Got eggplants? Swiss chard? It’s a really easy recipe to personalize.”
For a simple side, Davison loves a good zoodle — roasted, not steamed to avoid “a wet mess” — with lemon, olive oil and pecorino. She’s also a big fan of layered tians or classic ratatouille. She’ll often plop a fried egg on the latter and eat it for breakfast. But if you really want to get her excited about zucchini — yes, it’s possible — talk fritters.
“Oooh, yes, zucchini and feta fritters,” she says, referring to another recipe from “The Complete Summer Cookbook.”
Shred and salt 1 pound of zucchini and let it drain before adding egg, flour, dill, scallions, pepper and feta. Combine well and drop two-tablespoon- sized dollops of batter into an oiled skillet, frying until golden and latke-like.
Important tip: “Squeeze the shredded zucchini in a dish towel until completely dry,” Davison says. “Otherwise, you’ll have soggy fritters.”
Every summer, Whiteman can count on friends and family growing squash in their backyards, and the bounty makes excellent quick breads.
“Even though I love a good homemade chocolate chip-zucchini bread, there are other ways you can prepare all that extra squash you have grown or picked up from the farmers market,” she says.
A favorite of hers is layering roasted heirloom summer squash and shaved zucchini into a late summer squash harvest bowl. The dish gets its flavor and color from chili oil, freshherb ricotta and a roasted tomato-red pepper vinaigrette made with heirloom tomatoes. It’s on the menu at the revamped Gather, which reopened thismonth after a six-month closure due to COVID-19.