{"id":11458,"date":"2014-08-01T08:11:34","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T12:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=11458"},"modified":"2014-08-01T08:16:18","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T12:16:18","slug":"is-zucchini-edible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/08\/01\/is-zucchini-edible\/","title":{"rendered":"Is zucchini edible?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Stephanie Weiss, who wrote: Last night\u2019s dinner was zucchini pizzas on the grill. I was thrilled that this recipe ate up a whole monster zucchini! (And my kids ate it up.) Only five more to go!<\/p><\/div>\n

So why didn\u2019t the zucchini cross the road?<\/b><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t want to become squash!<\/p>\n

Yes, indeed it\u2019s time for squash jokes. Calabacin, cousa, courgette, cymling, cuccuzza, curcubita pepo, scallop, vegetable marrow, butterbar, crookneck, straightneck, pattypan, zucchini — whatever you call it, it\u2019s summer squash and it\u2019s here. We\u2019re at that point in the summer when the squash is coming on strong and every gardener and cook feels challenged to do something useful and delicious with it all. This week we asked listeners share their ideas about summer squash and you came up with some good ones. Read on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Heather Casey<\/strong>: \u00a01) Zucchini and pasta. Saut\u00e9 zuch and squash with lots or garlic and onions, with olive oil and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Mix in favorite cooked pasta. Serve with parmesan cheese. Also, 2) squash bake with garlic, onions, and tomato sauce topped with croutons and cheese. Bake til bubbly. Or, 3) hollow out squash and fill with tomato\/onion\/garlic mixture, top with cheese and bake. Got to love zucchini bread with chocolate chips, too!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eileen Kaleel<\/strong>: \u00a0Saut\u00e9 slices of both with some olive oil, a little butter, add some pine nuts or sunflower seeds, just a touch of sesame oil and toss with angel hair pasta (gluten free). Just perfection! (My sister’s recipe.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sarah Fink<\/strong>: \u00a0Oven-baked zucchini fries, spicy zucchini pickles, add a zucchini to the food processor while making pesto to make it a bit creamy for pasta sauce, shred summer squash and use in place of potato for latkes\/pancakes, squash and crab fritters, the list goes on and on!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Matthew Arnold<\/strong>: Drive around looking for friends who don’t lock their cars, deposit zucchini, and depart post haste.<\/p>\n

Alison Millsaps<\/strong>: \u00a0We nip them in the bud. Stuff the male flowers with herbed goat cheese and mozzarella. Twist the ends shut and dip the whole thing in milk. Then dredge them through flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Wait a few minutes and dip\/dredge again. Finally deep fry them in a cast iron skillet. So good.<\/p>\n

Phyllis Levine<\/strong>: \u00a0Brown Chocolate zucchini bread. Heavenly.<\/p>\n

Nils I. Peterson<\/strong>: \u00a0I return them to the compost pile so I can grow more then I need again next year. Seriously, though, grilled and in stir fry.<\/p>\n

Matilda Larson<\/strong>: \u00a0Loaves and loaves of chocolate chip orange zucchini bread for putting in the freezer.<\/p>\n

Holly Chambers<\/strong>: \u00a0Spaghetti\/noodle zucchini\/yellow squash. Instead of slicing in circles, which is what I usually do, grate on a grater turned on its side, or use a food processor if you have the julienne attachment, or a spiralizer. Salt lightly and put in a colander to drain off some of the liquid; press lightly a few times. Put a bunch of olive oil in a pan, saut\u00e9 too much crushed fresh garlic (if that is possible) and a few green onions, plus a few chopped walnuts. Add the zucchini and saut\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Richard Rodzinski<\/strong>: Here’s one I have developed over the years. It is especially designed to make use of those overly large zucchini which hide under a leaf and which one misses for a few days past when they should have been harvested.<\/p>\n

Riki’s Pie<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/p>\n

6 cups of coarsely grated zucchini<\/p>\n

half a cup breadcrumbs<\/p>\n

one egg<\/p>\n

three heaping tablespoons real bacon crumbles<\/p>\n

1 cup grated cheeses (Fontina, Jarlsberg, Edam, Gouda, etc.)<\/p>\n

2 tablespoons Italian Parmesan.<\/p>\n

Preparation:<\/p>\n

Grate zucchini in a food processor and remove as much water as possible by lightly salting the grated zucchini and leave standing for a while in a colander. One can also put it between kitchen towels and squeeze or use a roller. The more water removed the better.<\/p>\n

Put the zucchini in a bowl and mix with the breadcrumbs, and egg, and the bacon crumbles. One can then let this stand in a colander for an additional hour or so to let it drain further.<\/p>\n

Place half the mixture in a greased baking bowl and sprinkle with at least a half a cup of grated soft cheeses in any combination.<\/p>\n

Spread the remainder of the mixture on top of cheeses and cover this latter with the remainder of the grated cheeses.<\/p>\n

Sprinkle the top with freshly grated Parmesan.<\/p>\n

Bake the “pie” at 350\u00b0 for one hour or until the cheeses brown slightly. If it looks like the zucchini might still be a little too mushy one can leave the pie in for another half hour until more liquid has evaporated.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the pie as a meal in itself with a side of a fresh garden salad or serve it as a side dish with poultry, beef, or fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So why didn\u2019t the zucchini cross the road?
\nHe didn\u2019t want to become squash!
\nYes, indeed it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1420,87,8428,9831,14961],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11458"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11463,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11458\/revisions\/11463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}