Category: Zucchini

I know I just posted a chard pizza a few weeks ago. Maybe it’s too soon to post another pizza blog? This will be the last one for a while. I promise. In my defense, pizza is a quick easy summer meal and it is a perfect vehicle for all the beautiful vegetables we get, like the zucchini and zucchini blossoms in this weeks share. I made some pizzas and calzones with them and took a few pictures to maybe inspire some meals for you.

For the filling for the calzones I used the onions and parsley we got too, oh and some beet greens.

I sauteed all that in olive oil and salt and pepper until they were just tender. Then I mixed up the parsley with some ricotta and Parmesan cheese. I don’t measure anything. I just mix what I have up.

I then rolled out some pizza dough in an oblong shape and piled the vegetables and cheese parsley mixture on half and pulled the other half over the filling and make some slits in the top of the dough to let the steam escape.

My oven was about 450 degrees and it cooked in about 25 minutes.

And it was delicious.

For the zucchini blossom pizza, I just threw some zucchini blossoms on a pizza with some cheese. In hindsight I wish I stuffed the blossoms with some of the ricotta mix and then put them on the pizza. Oh well. Next time.

There will be a next time too, I’m sure.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer vegetables. Have a great week.

Mo

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is by far my favorite way to have zucchini. I feel like squash and zucchini often get mushy when you cook them. Grilled zucchini is crisp and has a slightly carmelized flavor. They key is to make your zucchini slices an even thickness so they cook evenly. Thinner slices are crisper, but burn more easily. Thicker slices are a little more forgiving. Start by heating up your grill to a pretty high temperature. Slice your zucchini while you’re waiting for the grill to heat.

Trim the top and bottom off your zucchini. If you’re cutting the zucchini with a knife, start by cutting a thin slice down one edge. Now you can put that flat edge face down on your cutting board and it is somewhat easier to cut the rest of your slices without having your zucchini roll around.

I am not great at cutting straight, so I like to use a mandoline slicer. (I highly recommend getting a mandoline slicer if you don’t own one already. You can use it to make even slices of all kinds of vegetables. McGuckin has a good selection of inexpensive mandoline slicers.)

Put the zucchini in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir until the zucchini slices are thoroughly coated.

Grill for about 5 minutes on the first side–until there are nice grill marks. Turn the zucchini only once. It will take about half as long to cook the second side. The zucchini is great served straight off the grill. You can also sprinkle it with a little bit of grated Parmesan. Or you can dip it in my favorite secret guilty pleasure–ranch dressing.

 

 

 

Yield: 2 loaves of bread or approximately 24 muffins

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup olive or vegetable oil
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners (or grease and flour 2 8×4″ loaf pans).

Grate your zucchini using a box grater, or a food processor if you have one. 2 cups is about half of a big zucchini or a whole medium zucchini. If you have a big one on hand, make a double batch with 24 muffins and 2 loaves of bread and freeze the bread for later. It really freezes well wrapped in plastic wrap a few times, and will be great to have a few months from now when you’re in zucchini withdrawals.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and then add to egg mixture.

Pour batter into muffin cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

– Maddie

adapted from Joy of Baking

• 1 1/2 cups shredded raw zucchini
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup (45 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (not Dutch-processed)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup safflower or canola oil
• 1/2 cup (105 grams) light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup (125 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips and a handful of nuts.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls then mix together. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips, and nuts.

Scrape batter into a greased 9×5 loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

I like to leave my zucchini really big when I bake bread with it. I like to see the vegetables, because then it is good for you, right?

– Mo

You can eat the blossoms raw in a salad or they are really nice in a quesadilla. Just put it in with the cheese and it will soften with the melted cheese. The blossoms have a sort of ‘condensed’ zucchini flavor, but very mild. The stem is very tasty, so make sure you include that in whatever you make. Some recipes say to discard the stem. Don’t do that.
I made some fried and stuffed blossoms. It really isn’t complicated and it is just delicious. First you will want to remove the stamen before you do anything with your blossoms. The stamens are a little bitter.
This is a male stamen. I just gently tear the blossom and remove the stamen.

You can stuff your blossoms with anything, grains, cheese of any kind, herbs, anything.
I had some goat cheese and basil. So I mixed that up. And stuffed my blossoms.


Get a couple bowls and put a beaten egg in one and some seasoned flour in the other.
Pull the flower around the cheese and dip the blossom in the egg then the flour. You don’t have to be that careful with these. They are really forgiving.  Eva stopped by when I was making these and she can’t eat gluten and I just fried some with cheese and without cheese for her and they were really good. Anyway…
Fry the dipped, stuffed blossom in a hot pan with oil. Make sure you press the stem down in the pan so it cooks.
Turn it over and fry the other side and there you go.

Three or four of those with a salad and some bread and wine makes a great summer dinner.
The blossoms will keep in the refrigerator for several days so don’t feel like you have to make these right away. I kept last week’s blossoms for 6 days in the fridge before I used them and they were fine.

– Mo