Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ

Jul 27, 2016 By Joe Carei for The 5 min read

I have all of these zucchini.

What am I supposed to do?

I could fry them or make bread.

Better yet, cook in a stew.

– Excerpt from Zucchini, a poem by Debora Soramaki

First it was the cicadas, now it’s the zucchini. Except the zucchini invasion comes every year.

It starts innocently enough, a couple here and a couple there. Friends always ask if I need any, I can never say no.

Next thing you know, my back step is covered with them.

Some of them look like Fred Flintstone used them to capture Wilma for his wife. It not their fault, one day it’s a flower and the next day there’s a substitute for a softball bat in the garden.

Its ability to produce is a testament to its resilience and ability to thrive in summer’s most oppressive heat.

Enough knocking of this super fruit, yes fruit, botanically it is a fruit.

But, we will refer to it as a vegetable as it is treated as such culinarily.

Ironically, when I first started cooking, you could only get zucchini in the summer and buy it frozen the rest of the year.

Now, you can get this potassium rich and affordable darling year round.

The irony continues as zucchini started as squash in the new world, Columbus brought it back to Italy.

After a few centuries of fine tuning, the Italians brought zucchinis with them in the great Italian migration to the United States at the turn of the century. Americans loved the new squash.

It took the French a little while to accept it, but once they made ratatouille, it was hip.

Now, let’s get back to the stack on the back stoop.

Needless to say, I am always looking for new ways to prepare zucchini. Fried is most popular, in restaurants and also at home. Sliced thin, dredged in seasoned flour and deep fried. Served with Fayette County Gravy (ranch dressing), it was always a best seller. This versatile gourd can also be boiled, baked, barbecued, grilled, sautéed, steamed, seared, tossed in salad, pasta and shredded for baking. You can substitute lasagna noodles with sliced zucchini, spaghetti with julienned noodles and for potatoes in potato pancakes. And believe it or not, you can substitute zucchini for apples in an apple cobbler and your friends won’t know the difference, trust me.

The zucchini flower is also edible, stuffed and tempura fried is known as fiora di zucca. Harvesting some the flowers can also control the overwhelming abundance of fruit, especially if you happen to have more than a couple of plants.

Although savory dishes are most popular uses for zucchini, I am seeing it used more and more in desserts and sweet baked goods. With its high moisture content and fiber content, you can substitute equal parts of shredded zucchini for oils in your breads, cakes and muffins.

After you have made your breads, salads, pastas and desserts and you still have a stack of those lovely corguettes, save some for later.

You can do that by freezing your surplus. You can shred it for later use in your baked goods.

Or you can cube it and freeze it, but blanch it first for about a minute. This will keep it from getting too mushy and discolored.

Freeze on a cookie sheet first, and then bag.

This will prevent them from being a zucchini blob when getting out of freezer. You can use cubes for soups, vegetable side dishes, casseroles and pasta toss-ins.

It was unfair to compare the zucchini ‘scourge’ to that of the cicadas. For one, they certainly taste better.

But the versatility, healthfulness and the fast growth make it favorite during this part of the summer.

Fiora di zucca

8 zucchini flours

¾ cup of ricotta cheese

¼ cup parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

½ teaspoons salt

Pepper

1 cup beer or soda water

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Marinara sauce

Mix together cheeses, basil, salt and pepper. In separate bowl, mix together rest of ingredients.

Open up zucchini flower half way, leaving a cup at the bottom. Fill with cheese mix. Twist together at the top. Dredge into the beer batter and deep fry in heavy pan with hot oil about half-inch deep.

Drain and serve with marinara sauce.

Zucchini Brownies

2 cup flour

½ cup unsweetened cocao powder

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ cups sugar

2 cups shredded zucchini

½ cup nuts (optional)

Mix together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. In separate bowl, beat oil, sugar and vanilla together. Combine flour and sugar mixes. Fold in zucchini and nuts. Batter will be a little dry. Press into greased 9×13 baking pan. Place in 350 degree preheated oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Zucchini Pancakes

1 pound zucchini or squash

1 tablespoon flour

½ cup chopped green onion

Salt and pepper

1 egg

1/4 cup grated parmigiana cheese

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter

Shred zucchini into paper towel and drain. Beat egg and add onion and fold in zucchini and parmigiana cheese. Add salt and pepper.

Heat up olive oil/butter on stove top and fry zucchini pancakes until browned on both sides.