Happy National Zucchini Day!

In honor of this national celebration of the giant green squash, I decided to share with you some ways we've been enjoying the bounty of our garden. Even if you don't have a garden, zucchini are really cheap this time of year, so I hope you can use one of the following recipes to take advantage of the savings!

The pasta pictured above is Farfalle with Zucchini and Gorgonzola from Serious Eats. We halved the cheese because we like a milder blue cheese flavor, but besides that we stuck to the recipe. This was Kyle's favorite way we've prepped zucchini so far (besides cake). 

Above is a Zucchini Potato Frittata from the kitchn. We omitted to bacon to make it slightly healthier, and it was still very good! We made it twice in two weeks, which for our ever-changing menu is a big deal. This and the next preparation have been my favorite so far. 

This is adapted from a grilled zucchini salad from the kitchn. We don't have a grill, so we used a different technique for the zucchini. We made it twice. Once, pairing the zucchini with uncooked cherry tomatoes as in the original recipe, and the second with cooked full size tomatoes. The amounts are very flexible, but here's a basic outline of the recipe:

Zucchini and Tomato Salad

2 medium zucchini

1 to 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or 3 to 4 regular tomatoes, diced

1 ounce Parmesan cheese, shredded or shaved

2 tablespoons basil, chopped or chiffonaded

1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat up a cast iron pan. Cut the zucchini into quarters. Add olive oil to the cast iron pan and cook the zucchini on all sides until charred, about 1-2 minutes per side. Remove the zucchini and dice. If using good tomatoes, combine everything together and you're done. If you're tomatoes aren't amazing and they need a little help to be more flavorful, char them as well in the cast iron pan for a few minutes. Either way, this is a really easy summer side dish to throw together! Add some beans and grain and you've got a whole meal.

Thai Chicken Pizza

This was pretty good. We didn't have any fresh basil, so we used dried. I think next time I may be less healthy and use a half whole wheat crust instead of completely whole wheat. It was a fun different flavor combination than our usual tomato based pizza. It has chicken, zucchini, sweet chili sauce and peanuts! You can find the recipe on tasty kitchen.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Our nice neighbors gave us some awesome zucchini from their garden. We ate some of them as a meal, but with the rest, we decided to make two of these beautiful looking chocolate zucchini cakes from Zoe Bakes. I love her blog! She's a pastry chef, mom, and co-author of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day series. She always had delicious-looking desserts on her blog. I've enjoyed every one of the recipes I've made from there.

Our zucchini cake didn't look as pretty, but I'm sure it tasted as good, because it was amazing! We gave the prettier one to our neighbors to thank them for the zucchini. I asked my mom first if it would be some kind of taboo re-gifting, but she said she'd appreciate it, so we dropped it off. Unfortunately they didn't come to the door, so we had to leave it with a note instead. We checked later and it was gone, but either someone else stole it or they didn't get out note because we haven't heard back from them, but we hope they liked it!

We definitely liked it! So make this moist and chocolate-y cake for yourselves! And if you give it to your neighbors make sure you're there in person. I was debating saying in the note we left that it was made with their zucchini because if you didn't know, you really wouldn't be able to tell. The only trace the zucchini leaves is some extra body and moistness. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it... Another bonus if you make it just for yourself is that you can do it in a 9x13 and not worry about the bundt because it doesn't have to be pretty, just delicious!

What do you think about giving someone a baked good out of stuff from their garden? Bad? Good? Would you eat this cake if I gave it to you?

Recipe Redo: Summer Squash and Tomato Gratin

We revisited this recipe recently, but doubled it. Unfortunately it was a little soggy. I looked back at the inspirational recipes and realized that the one which included milk also had potatoes. I think we must not have added the full amount of milk on the first one because it was crisp. Either way, I'd recommend leaving out the milk for this one. Here's the revised recipe:

Summer Squash and Tomato Gratin

serves 4

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 35 min

2-3 squash/ zucchini
6 oz mozarella (we used part-skim, but whatever you have works)
1-2 tomatoes
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (crushed croutons could substitute)
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons + olive oil


Wash and slice the squash and zucchini into thin coins.
Spread some olive oil in a 9" square pan
Toss the sliced squash and zucchini with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Layer a third of the squash and zucchini on the bottom and sprinkle salt and pepper over them.
Spread about 2 ounces mozarella on top.
Repeat the squash (+salt and pepper) and mozarella layers and top it off with a final squash layer with more salt and pepper.
Sprinkle on about a tablespoon dried basil.
Slice the tomatoes and layer them on top.
Sprinkle it with about 2 teaspoons dried thyme and some more cheese.
Bake it in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes uncovered, or until the tomatoes start browning and crisping on the edges.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and let it bake for 5 more minutes.
Enjoy before Fall comes!

Summer Squash and Tomato Gratin

Edit: We revisited this recipe, and now I'd recommend skipping the milk. See here for the revised recipe.

This is a super easy and delicious way to use the wonderful produce we have so much of in Summer. Kyle took the lead on this recipe but he said I could still blog about it because it tasted so good!

We were originally going to make ratatouille and leave out the eggplant (since we didn't have any and don't particularly love it), but then we decided that a gratin sounded better to us last night. This dish was partially inspired by a gratin recipe from The Kitchn and partially inspired by a recipe from an America's Test Kitchen cookbook, which I love by the way. Although if you order it, go through Amazon because the ATK company takes like 4 weeks to ship!

So here's what we did:

Kyle washed and sliced 4 yellow and orange squash and 1 zucchini into thin coins using our food processor. The squash was a farmer's market find and the zucchini was from our really nice upstairs neighbor's garden. You can also slice them by hand or with a mandoline, but the food processor is awesome because it's so quick. We blanched and froze half the slices to use later, but you could use them all if you're cooking for more than two. Just be sure to use a bigger pan and increase the other ingredients.

Kyle spread some olive oil in a 9" square pan and tossed the sliced squash and zucchini with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. He layered a third of the squash and zucchini on the bottom and sprinkled salt and pepper over them. He then spread about 2 ounces mozarella on top. He then repeated the squash (+salt and pepper) and mozarella layers and topped it off with a final squash layer with more salt and pepper. I sprinkled on about a tablespoon dried basil and he drizzled on 1/4 cup milk. Then deciding it needed something more, we added some leftover chopped tomato and sliced another one and stuck that on top. I sprinkled it with about 2 teaspoons dried thyme (I really have no idea, I'm just estimating here. Put on whatever you think looks good.) and some more cheese. Prep only took about 10-15 minutes.

We baked it in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes uncovered. We then sprinkled about a quarter cup breadcrumbs on top and let it bake for 5 more minutes. We pulled it out, took a couple pictures and ate!

Man was it good! We both promptly decided that this is our new favorite way to have squash.  The tomatoes on top had roasted in the oven and their juices drained down and really gave the dish some deep flavor. I wouldn't change anything next time, except maybe I'd make more. (And possibly add mushrooms, parmesean, fresh herbs instead.... I'm really incapable of making the exact same recipe twice I think. But this didn't really need anything more, I just like experimenting.)

In summary, here's approximately what you need:

2-3 squash/ zucchini
6 oz mozarella (we used part-skim, but whatever you have works)
1 1/2 tomatoes
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (crushed croutons could substitute)
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

This yields 4 servings

Feel free to play around with the ingredients and use whatever fresh summer produce you have on hand and whatever herbs and spices you like!