PicoBlog

Monday, July 11, 2022

Good afternoon!

In my sixteen years of Smitten Kitchen-ing, I have evolved from someone who is zucchini-ambivalent to someone who now buys extra zucchini every time I see it at the market. This essentially means I’m walking around with zucchini in my tote bag a several times a week from June through September and I hope you expect nothing less of me. Most of the recipes on SK that use zucchini are a reaction to my initial ambivalence — it never seemed very flavorful or exciting, thus any recipe I felt was worth going to bat blog for, needed to be both. I fritter it, I pancake it, I sauté it as a base for crispy chickpeas, and in my new book coming this fall, I create a most epic summer lasagna with it, and even stuff it into a breakfast/picnic bread I hope will become a staple. Below, several of my favorite ways to use it so you won’t have to dodge neighbors bearing baskets of free zucchini, beelining for your porch in August.

Note: Because I didn’t always know this, I will not assume that you already know this: Zucchini is a type of summer squash. In the vast majority of zucchini recipes, you can swap any other variety, color, or shape or summer squash and it will work similarly.

Cheers,

Deb

This is one of my favorite summer meals of all time and it's wildly simple, just cherry tomatoes quick-roasted with olive oil, garlic, and salt until saucy, and then we tumble in a can of beans and let them drink it up. Finish with basil and eat straight from the pan, or ladle it over crostini. Repeat as long as tomatoes last.

✨ My third cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, will be out in just over four months and I cannot wait to share it with you. I hope you will consider preordering it so it’s deposited at your doorstep the moment it’s out in the world and you make those swirls of green spaghetti right away. Details here! ✨

Zucchini season highlights

A pound of zucchini, coarsely grated, tethered with just enough egg, flour, and seasoning to make them magical are fried in little heaps into a forever summer staple, whether topped with an egg for breakfast, or a dollop of garlicky lemon yogurt for light meal bliss.

Not just any quesadillas, but filled with zucchini that's been cooked until tender and concentrated, then stuffed into bronzed tortillas with messy, lacy brown edges that form when the melted cheese lands on and crisps in the skillet. We eat those first.

One of the best pizzas I have *ever* made, this is the very best kind of dinner: it has five ingredients including the ones to make the pizza dough. It’s seasonal and it doesn’t care what else you had planned; it wants to be moved to the front of your cooking queue.

Not your usual pasta salad, this one has a pesto-like sauce, capers, lemons, peas, and zucchini and it's anything but boring. You serve it warm but I can attest that cold from the fridge leftovers will make for a perfect lunch tomorrow or the day after.

Are you suspicious of summer squash and zucchini? Do you worry it might be bland or just too slippery? This preparation is here to convert you: crunchy, complex with herbs and seasoning galore, then just enough cheese to pull it together.

Tiny spiced lamb or turkey meatballs and coins of marinated zucchini are grilled on skewers and served with a minty garlic yogurt sauce. I always wish I made these more often because I don't think it's possible to get tired of a combination this delicious.

This is it, the best zucchini bread I've ever made and I hope the last recipe you'll ever need. It's tall with a craggy, crunchy top, has a significant amount of zucchini inside, can be mixed in one bowl (with a fork, no less) and even tells you how to store and when to eat it for Peak Zucchini Bread Bliss. It's a thing, or we're going to make it one.

Crisp edges, plush interiors, fragrant and filling, these are one of our favorite weekend pancakes that also manages to address summer's real torment: zucchini population control.

My Zucchini and Ricotta Galette is picnic/potluck perfection. Basil, ricotta, mozzarella, garlic and coins of zucchini assemble in what is basically a flaky nest of high summer and a forever Smitten Kitchen favorite.

I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer. Let me know if there’s anything I’ve left off that you need.

See you next week!

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