The Trouble with Tribbles, err, Zucchini

OK, if you're not a geek like me or aren't old enough to remember the classic Trouble with Tribbles episode of the original Star Trek, that title line probably confused you. You see, Tribbles were these cute little furry pets that were brought aboard the Starship Enterprise and began to reproduce at a rate that would make rabbits look lazy. If you've ever grown zucchini, you know that they're kind of like Tribbles. Well, we had the typical bumper crop this season so we're still working hard at finding new ways to feature them in our Meatless Monday meals.

Our most recent use of zucchini was as a pistou, a cold sauce typically made from garlic, basil, olive oil, nuts and cheese.

Ingredients

• 4 tsps extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 1/2 cups zucchini sliced 1/4" thick (about 3/4 pound)
• 1/2  cup packed basil leaves
• 2 tbps pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup (2 oz) shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese, divided
• 4 garlic cloves (2 minced, 2 whole)
• 2 cups chopper Vidalia (or other sweet onion)
• 6 qts water
• 1 3/4 tsps kosher salt, divided
• 8 oz. uncooked penne
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 2 hot peppers, thinly sliced (optional)
• Handful yellow wax or green beans (optional)
• Halved cherry tomatoes for garnish

 Preparation

• Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large skillet on medium high. Add zucchini and saute until tender and starting to brown (about 10 mins).
• Remove to a bowl and allow to cool slightly.
• place 1/4 cup cooked zucchini, basil, 1/4 cup cheese, and 2 whole garlic cloves in a food processor or blender and mix until finely chopped (keep mixture in processor).
• Heat remaining oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and saute for about 10 minutes until golden. Add remaining cooked zucchini to pan. Add hot pepper and minced garlic, saute for about 1 more minute. Remove from heat. 
• Combine water and 1 tsp kosher salt in a large pot and bring to a boil.
• Add pasta and cook until almost aldente. Add beans and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Fish out pasta and beans
• Add 1/3 cup of the pasta cooking water to the food processor, process until smooth.
• Add the onion and zucchini mixture to the pasta and beans
• Add the basil/zucchini pistou to the pasta. Add heavy cream, salt and pepper. Stir then top with remaining cheese and cherry tomatoes.

This summery pasta dish is perfect for any vegetarian or Meatless Monday meal. The zucchini lends a refreshing element to the classic pistou components.

Trouser Legs for Meatless Monday Dinner?

What's that you said? That's right, trouser legs -- also known as calzoni, literally translated from the Italian.

Last night was one of our "re-purposing" nights, you know, making use of things from the refrigerator and pantry that just happen to be sitting around. Not quite a Refrigerator Orphans event, but pretty close. Cynthia makes her own dough which we typically use to make Grilled Pizza. She usually makes more than we need and freezes the unused portions for later use. Initially, we had decided to make pizza so the dough was already out defrosting when she called me to say the plan had changed and we were doing something different and that she was going to use up some of the "never-ending supply of zucchini" that our garden seems hell bent on producing. We also had a red pepper from our garden and an eggplant from the farmer's market sitting around. So, vegetable and ricotta calzones it would be.

Ingredients

• 1/4 Pizza dough recipe (find the recipe here)
• 1 medium red bell pepper - cut into strips
• 1 small eggplant - cut into 1/4" thick pieces (see picture), lightly salted and left to sit on the counter for 10 minutes or so
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini cut in half and then into half moons about 1/4" thick
• couple cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• handful of breadcrumbs (used Ian's organic whole wheat panko)
• EVOO, a tbsp or two
• salt, fresh chopped herbs of your choice, we used marjoram and parsley
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• couple of slices of fresh mozzarella or goat cheese
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup your favorite grated cheese, we used locatelli romano 

Preparation

• Saute onions in EVOO for a couple of minutes, add eggplant and cook for another couple minutes
• Add zucchini and pepper and continue to cook until all veggies are soft, on medium high heat to develop some carmelization.  Toss in the garlic, herbs, breadcrumb and cheese, adding a little extra EVOO if necessary.  Mix and let get nice and crusty.  Set aside and let cool.
• Divide the pizza dough in half and roll out to about 1/8" thickness. Roughly round shape is helpful.

• Place a health scoop of the veggie mix offset from the middle of your chosen shape leaving enough room around the edges to form a seal later
• Add a healthy 1/4 cup dollop of ricotta cheese on top of the veggies along with some of the fresh mozzarella that you've ripped apart - season the cheese if you like 

• Fold the dough over onto itself, making a "turnover" and crimp the edges together using your fingers. Making a good seal here is important to keep the insides from leaking out during cooking - it's imperative the top edge of the top portion gets tucked under the bottom edge that you're pulling up and over the top edge.  Got that?  

• Place the calzone on a lightly oiled sheet pan to prevent sticking.
• Cook at 425 degrees F for approximately 15 minutes. Brushing the top with a little oil will promote better browning, as will using your convection oven.

• Remove from the oven and serve hot with warm sauce on the side for dipping and extra grated cheese.  Cold beer makes an excellent accompaniment.

Summer Pasta with Fried Zucchini Flowers and Radicchio

My last post was called Here Come the Zucchini. Well, they're here -- in full force, and like many of you, we're always looking for great new ways to use them. This week for Meatless Monday, Cyn put together a wonderful pasta dish using not only the zucchini but garlic, Greek oregano, Tuscan rosemary, Thai basil, Italian parsley, chives and zucchini flowers all from our garden!

If you've never cooked with or had zucchini flowers you really need to give them a try. If you grow your own zucchini, you will have these beautiful yellow flowers on every vine.

They're used in a variety of ways in Italian cooking and we've done one of the simplest but most delicious preparations here -- a light batter deep fry.




Ingredients 


Pasta

• 3 tbsp butter, divided
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 tbsp shallots, sliced thin (half a medium)
• salt
• 2 big pinched of crushed red pepper (or to taste)
• 5 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
• 1 cup of white wine -- we used an un-oaked Chardonnay
• 1 medium zucchini, whole and unpeeled
• 1/2 pound linguine (or other long pasta of your choice)
• 1/2 cup Better than Bullion "no chicken" chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• 1/2 small head of radicchio julienned
• good squeeze of fresh lemon

For Fried Squash Blossom

• 2/3 cup AP flour
• 1 cup carbonated beverage (we used Pelligrino water but beer, soda, seltzer or tonic would all work)
• Vegetable oil - at least 1/2" deep
• 9-12 zucchini blossoms, stamen snipped out of middle

Preparation (the sauce)

• In a small saucepan, reduce the white wine to 1/2 cup
• On a mandolin with thick julienne insert, slice the zucchini the long way to make 'linguine', stopping before you get into the seeds

• Combine the herbs and chop roughly (finer - more taste)

•  Add 2 tbsp of butter and the 2 tbsp EVOO to a saute pan on medium low heat

• Add garlic and shallots, cook slowly until transparent and just starting to brown, add red pepper
• Add reduced wine and stock to garlic and shallots -- simmer while stirring for 1-2 minutes 
• Keep warm while cooking pasta

Preparation (the zucchini flowers)

• Heat the vegetable oil to 350 degrees F in a deep fry pan
• Prepare a light batter by mixing the flour and carbonated beverage together with a whisk. Important: the carbonated beverage MUST BE COLD. You are looking for a consistency just slightly more thick than heavy cream.
• Drag each zucchini flower in the batter and fry immediately. They will take no more than 30 seconds per side

• Remove them from the oil as they finish and drain on a rack above a pan or paper towels. Salt immediately as they come out of the oil.

 Final Preparation

• Cook the pasta about 3/4 of the way done
• Remove the pasta from the water, add to the reserved sauce
• Add about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the sauce and zucchini
• Simmer until pasta reaches your preferred level of doneness
• Add chopped herbs, sliced radicchio and simmer for another minute
• Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and the remaining 1 tbsp of butter
• Top pasta with zucchini flowers
• Salt to taste

 

The creamy pasta combines perfectly with the slight bitterness of the radicchio and the crispiness of the zucchini flowers. Together with the garlic and wine sauce, this dish screams summer. Buon appetito!

Here Come the Zucchini

Last time I wrote about our garden, the zucchini were still in their infancy. Now, as zucchini always does, they're coming fast and furious. This year we decided to grow an heirloom variety called Cocozelle, which are shaped entirely different than the more typical long style. These guys are nearly round when they're grown out!

This past Monday, as a part of our regular Meatless Monday, Cyn put together a side dish that turned out so well I wanted to devote this blog entry to it. It was simple, quick to put together and really tasty. It even reheated well the next day when I took the leftovers to work for lunch.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup shredded parmigiano cheese (almost any good melting cheese would work well)
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 small hot pepper, minced (optional, but we like it hot)
• minced fresh herbs (optional - summer or winter savory, oregano, parsley and thyme all work)
• melted butter
• 1 pound of zucchini cut into 1/4 inch rounds, slices, or strips (your choice)
• salt

Note: The more common long zucchini will work just as well!


Preparation

• Slice the zucchini, salt lightly and allow to stand on paper towels for 10-15 minutes. This will draw out some of the natural liquid contained in them, much like you would do with an eggplant.
• Dip one side of each zucchini slice in the breadcrumbs - it will form a nice crunchy base
• Place the zucchini slices on a silicone mat (to prevent sticking) on a sheet pan
• Mix the breadcrumbs, cheese, shallot, hot pepper, and herbs together
• Drizzle a little melted butter onto each zucchini slice
• Sprinkle the mixed ingredients on to each slice

• Cook in a 400 degree convection oven (425 degree regular oven) until the cheese is melted and begins to lightly brown

• Remove and serve hot

 

These little beauties are crunchy yet creamy, delicious and pretty darn healthy. Since we have so many zucchini in the garden, we spent some time talking about what else we might do with them and came up with a few ideas for future meals.

- Build a Zucchini Parmigiano sandwich (much like eggplant parm) with fresh tomato and mozzarella

- Fan the baked peice out on a plate and position fried eggs on top for a complete meal with protein

- Make a veggie Napoleon with the zucchini, tomato, ricotta and basil leaves

The possibilities are probably endless. How would you use them?

Cyn's Summer Pasta Salad

It's been hot in Northern Virginia this Spring and early Summer. So far in July we've had 6 days over 100F (38C) and the prediction is that we will end this month as the hottest ever on record for the Washington DC area. This past Monday was no exception, very hot, humid and sticky. When it's that uncomfortable, the thought of eating something hot just isn't that appealing. So I was pleasantly surprised when Cynthia told me we were having a cold pasta salad for our Meatless Monday dinner. Here is her recipe for this delicious and refreshing dish.

Ingredients (the dressing)

• 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup white balsamic (can substitute white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar)
• heaping tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup oil, I like EVOO

 Ingredients (the salad)

• about 1 cup corn, cut from two ears or cheat and use a can of corn, we grilled our corn before use here

•  1 1/2 pounds zucchini, julienne, placed in colander and tossed with 2 tsp kosher salt.  Let sit an hour, squeeze excess moisture out and pat dry. Do not skip the salting, your zucchini will create a water bath in the salad and the salad will be highly under seasoned. 

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, torn or shredded, your preference
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cubed or purchase bocconcini or ciliegine (small fresh mozzarella balls and smaller fresh mozzarella balls, respectively)
• optional, used here: oil cured black olives and fresh chives
• 1/2 pound of pasta, one with curls and/or ridges to catch and hold the dressing, Campanelle from Barilla was used in this recipe.  (I find Barilla brand pastas tend to hold their shape very well in a cold pasta preparations.)

Preparation

•  Cook your pasta a minute or two less than package instructions, or until it's just tender.  Dump into a colander and pass under cold running water just until it's cool enough not to melt your mozzarella, but still warm.

• Whisk all dressing ingredients together and throw in the mozzarella and tomatoes to marinate while you deal with the zucchini and pasta. 

• Once pasta and zucchini are ready, mix everything together and serve.  

 
If you want, you can make this a couple of days ahead, but let it sit out for half an hour or so and wait until just before service before adding the basil.  This recipe doubles well, and makes a fantastic base for grilled shrimp that has been marinated in garlic and lemon on those non-meatless days of the week. Served wit
  h a nice roll or even better yet, garlic bread, this makes a perfect hot summer night meal.