Welcome to the longest, hottest, stinkiest summer on record! Mr. Sanders and I drove to Boone, North Carolina for a few days of cooler weather earlier this week. It was delightful to suddenly realize that wearing a sweater could improve our summer-sour-puss outlook on life. We enjoyed a couple of 65° mornings, light sweaters, fabulous vistas and oodles of fluffy white and pink hydrangeas. Since returning home we have returned to our doomscrolling ways: We couldn’t view the total solar eclipse, there are tornados in Maryland, Canada is burning up, there have been earthquakes in Colombia and the Philippines, and we still have to be careful about iceberg lettuce. Luckily, nutrition-wise, zucchini season is upon us.
I’ve given up on my daily walks. It is just too hot. Mr. Sanders bounds eagerly out of bed, and jumps into his sneakers, and dashes off most mornings. But it is only 72° at 7:00 A.M. and I cannot possibly walk out the door that early. He doesn’t need to think about the sudden preponderance of zucchini at the farmers’ market. Like Homer Price’s doughnuts, ripening zucchini are everywhere.
Luckily, there are just about as many recipes for zucchini as there are the ubiquitous and magically regenerating vegetables themselves. I have to create some zucchini order because it’s that time of year. Again. Neighbors furtively slipping their excess zucchini harvest onto your front porch, before dashing back home. These are the times that try cooks’ souls: what to do with all the excess zucchini baggage?
Luckily tomatoes are peaking now, too, and they provide excellent camouflage for zucchini: Summer Zucchini Tomato Gratin
What else are we to do with all the zucchini? It doesn’t look very nice on the windowsill – the end-of-summer tomatoes in varying stages of ripening are much more attractive. With school starting soon it is time to say good–bye to summer, and to turn on the oven, as you rid yourself of demon zucchini.
An elegant galette is a good way to start your purge. The crust is easy and forgiving, and it is soothing to lay out all the zucchini rings in ever widening circles. You will look very competent and trustworthy. And then you can start to spring these other surprises on the unsuspecting. If you have a garden, you have been harvesting tomatoes with a greedy heart, thinking about the jars of spaghetti sauce you will enjoy this winter. But what about that ever-rising green mountain of zucchini? You need to put on your thinking cap, and find some creative culinary solutions. Zucchini Galette
Zucchini boat recipes are a pretty solution. I like the idea of filling hollowed out vessels of zucchini with a variety of fixings, vegetarian, or not, and using up all the lingering leftovers. Zucchini Boats
Luckily, zucchini is oh, so versatile. (In case you thought you might have to persuade yourself…) You can find it in soups, salad, chips, galettes, casseroles, hidden in breads and cookies. You can roast it, slice it, twirl it. This is a link to a virtual compendium of zucchini recipes.
Do not be sneaky with zucchini. You don’t want to be the formerly favorite aunt who brings zucchini ginger cupcakes to the birthday party. Kids have a different perspective on summer. They will never forget so-called “gourmet” baking experiments, or deliberate kid deceptions. Zucchini Ginger Muffins Yummy icing always helps.
Nobody is fooled by zucchini bread. Least of all the small children into whom you are trying to stuff healthy vegetables. They are wise to your ways. Discuss the benefits of adding vegetables to your daily diet before feeding them this delicious Lemon Zucchini Bread.
We are very excited about this Chocolate Zucchini Bread And imagine, in just another week or two you can be packing this off in lunch boxes! Bliss!
Another double secret probation way to serve zucchini is to make zoodles – zucchini noodles. Cheese and bacon will tempt all your vegetable-reluctant children Creamy Bacon Zoodle Alfredo
“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
*This is my favorite zucchini quotation of all time, and I haul it out almost every year.
