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ZUCCHINI: JUST GIVE IN! It's September and zucchini is still with us. Indeed, it's got us surrounded. If you have even one healthy zucchini vine in your garden, with a bit of room to sprawl, you can go out and fill your harvest basket every other day or so. Don't fight it. Zucchini is good, and garden fresh zucchini, along with all its summer squash cousins, is downright delicious. It's also very easy to get along with - adaptable to many styles of cooking, and hard to ruin. Last year I posted a zucchini and basil soup here that is practically indestructable, and a perfect cure for squash overload. It's still a family favorite. You can also make wonderful gratins and casseroles, frittatas, simple sautés, stuffed squash, squash salad, and the ever satisfying ratatouille. Succumb to it. Cook lovely, easy squash dishes and enjoy them, because summer will be over soon enough. Like the easygoing vegetable it is, zucchini gets along well with everything else you have too much of right now: tomatoes, peppers, corn, basil - and if you live in my neighborhood, fresh lima beans as well. A dish I make frequently during the summer is a very simple squash stew, something like a fast ratatouille without the eggplant. Onions and a clove of garlic are softened in olive oil, then a large quantity of cut up zucchini, peppers and ripe tomatoes are added, along with plenty of fresh basil and enough salt and pepper to make it sing. All this summer goodness is simmered for about ten minutes, and presto - it's done. Or maybe not - because at this point it could also be the start of several other dishes. Add fresh sweet corn kernels and some tender green lima beans to the mix, and you have a variation on succotash, and a nice light supper. Just spoon it into a bowl and serve garlic bread for dipping. Even better, put a crusty piece of garlic toast in the bottom of a soup bowl and pour the stew over it, then sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top. It's also good spooned over steamed rice. If you'd like to turn it into a soup, you need only add some delicate vegetable broth, then stir in a spoonful of basil pesto for a garnish. For a more substantial soup, a summer minestrone, add lima beans or cannelini and some cooked pasta: orzo, pennette, rigatoni, shells - anything sturdy. If the zucchini stew is not overly juicy, and you haven't overcooked it, here's another option: drain it in a colander, capturing the excess juice in a bowl to use in your next soup. Then chill it and dress it with fragrant green olive oil, a dash of lemon juice, slivers of cured black olives, and chopped fresh herbs. At the last minute, add sweet cherry tomatoes, halved, and some crumbled feta, and have a great salad. This is the easiest kind of summer cooking. It's done on the stovetop, doesn't take long, and provides unpretentious meals full of the ripe, clear flavors of summer. But zucchini can be dressed up for special occasions. For years I've made fancy roulades using a zucchini soufflé base - shredded zucchini cooked down with onion and mixed with a thick bechamel sauce and eggs, then baked on a breadcrumb-coated pan. This flat layer is spread with mushroom filling, or other good things, and rolled up like a jelly roll. I decided to adapt the rather rich soufflé formula to a summer gratin. I increased the zucchini, eased up on the butter and eggs, and skipped the bechamel. That left room for some delicious cheese to melt over the top, and breadcrumbs drizzled with oil for the final golden-brown crunch. It's not too heavy but very satisfying, and makes a perfect late-summer supper. Dress it up or down. Have chopped tomato bruschetta for a first course, or add a salad on the side. Or, serve squares or wedges of the gratin in a pool of tomato sauce. Now aren't you glad you have that zuchini plant covering half your garden? Next year you might plant two. |