Saturday, June 14, 2008

Zucchini

We're at that awkward time of the gardening year when we get basket after basket of one thing, but don't have the other ingredients to make our favorites.

Costata Romanesco, my favorite zucchini, is fabulous alone, sauteed in olive oil with just a sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground pepper, served over a bed of spaghetti. Dust lightly with Parmesan to make it perfect. But, what I'm craving right this minute is Ratatouille. I still don't have eggplant, bell pepper, or tomato ripe, but I'm close.

Meanwhile, I have lots and lots and lots of zucchini.

I'm making Zucchini Bread with the larger squash (this species gets huge overnight but is amazingly tender for the larger vegetable genre) for eating now and for the freezer. Here's the recipe in case you have an over supply without support veggies.

Zucchini Bread

3 ea Egg -- slightly beaten
1 cup Sugar, Brown
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
2 cup Zucchini -- grated
3 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Flour, White, Unbleached
1 cup Flour, Whole-Grain
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3 tsp Cinnamon, Ground
1 cup Pecans -- Chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs and sugars together. Mix in oil, zucchini, and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and beat into mixture. Stir in chopped nuts. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9 x 5 loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour. Best if allowed to cool for a while after baking. from Dinner on the Diner, Junior League of Chattanooga.

Image is E's. I think this will be her fair photography entry. I saw her working on it in Black and White, yesterday afternoon.

7 comments:

mull-berry said...

I bought two zucchinis at the store this morning! On sale for 99 cents! Now I know why!!! Will have to try your recipe.

Unknown said...

We're in the same boat. Lots of zucchini and squash, but no tomatoes, broccoli or okra.
I've never been big on zucchini bread but I think I'm going to saute some up, that sounds wonderful!
We usually slice ours up in salads, stir fry it, or just eat it raw with veggie dip. My mom makes a dip with 8oz of cream cheese and a small bottle of thousand island dressing mixed in the blender. Yum and I don't even like thousand island dressing.
Keep the recipes coming!

Mrs. G. said...

This looks delicious. All most as delicious as the song you sent. Thank you so much. I would have sent this directly to you, but I don't see an email address on your sidebar. Thank you so much!

Jennifer said...

Zucchini bread with whole grain flour? I can't wait to show this one off to my mother... but it's gonna be a few more weeks if I want to use local produce. Spring was so late this year!

Anonymous said...

If you don't want to make it into bread before you freeze it, I had some success with grating it and packaging the grated zucchini in the amount required by the recipe. Then you can make it when you like, or just put grated zucchini in a soup or potato pancakes.

Actually, that latter might be a good alternative option while you wait for your ratatouille. Make potato pancakes using your usual recipe but include grated zucchini in with the grated potatoes.

Garden State Kate said...

I also grate and freeze..we are quite a ways off before we have any squash at all...just flowers now.;-)

Wisteria said...

Z,
The whole grain flour is lost in the sugar. Cake, rather than bread, is a more accurate name for this creation. I used only whole grain this morning and it was still great!

m~ I'm glad you're back from your trip. I wish we had just a little of your rain.