Zucchini in the Garden, in the Kitchen and on the Doorstep - Watch Out!

If you've ever planted zucchini you might recall right about this time of year you're searching for recipes to use it in, neighbors to give it to or doorsteps to leave it on. This year my neighbor planted zucchini and cucumbers and we planted acorn squash and tomatoes – so we could trade.

As I was coming out of the garden with the front of my shirt loaded down with tomatoes my neighbor flagged me down to see if I wanted any cucumbers and zucchini so we swapped – her husband had a big smile on his face when he saw me leaving with 2 cukes and 2 zucchini – probably happy he didn't have to have zucchini AGAIN.

I really like zucchini; a medium zucchini has about 33 calories and essentially no fat or cholesterol. It has vitamin A, C and B-6, magnesium and a little calcium. I like how it absorbs the flavors of the ingredients it's paired with – it's very versatile. And if you've seen any of my spiralized recipes they're great for spiralizing to use in place of pasta you really can't go wrong.

I have a favorite zucchini recipe, which I look forward to making every year at this time. It has zucchini (of course), caramelized onions, tomatoes, feta and fresh basil. It's a little putzy but the flavor combination is well worth the effort.  I've been making and tweaking this recipe for a long time so I'm not sure where or what the original recipe was, but a couple years ago I adapted it to use Pampered Chef tools for a show so here goes:

Zucchini and Tomato Bake

2 medium zucchini

3 - 4 Roma tomatoes (this time I used one large beefsteak and 4 romas)

2 medium red onions

10 basil leaves (or more)

2 - 3  garlic cloves - more or less depends on how much you like garlic

Feta cheese - I don't measure I just grab a chunk (remember, cooking is not science it's cooking :-)

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Using the PC simple slicer, thinly slice onions on setting 1. Place in pan with olive oil and cook on medium heat until caramelized.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Again using the simple slicer, slice zucchini on setting 2, place on paper towels, salt, cover with another paper towel and let sit 30 minutes. This is to extract as much moisture out of it as possible.

With a very sharp knife, thinly slice tomatoes, pat with paper towels to remove excess moisture.

To assemble: place one layer of zucchini slightly overlapping on bottom of the PC Rockcrok. Top with caramelized onions, then a layer of tomatoes. Add another layer of zucchini and finally the last layer of tomatoes. Sometimes I do 3 layers with 2 layers of carmelized onions - it depends on what I have in the fridge.

  

Using the garlic peeler, remove the skins and then place the garlic cloves in the garlic slicer.  Slice garlic on top of tomatoes.

Crumble feta and sprinkle on top of final layer of tomatoes. Chiffonade basil and sprinkle on top.  Cover and bake at 375 for approx 20 - 25 minutes or until zucchini is soft. Turn oven on broil, remove Rockcrok cover and place under broiler until feta is slightly browned.

I served this with fresh baked 10-grain bread and a green salad – it was worth the wait.  One thing to note, even when you salt and drain the tomatoes and zucchini you still get water in the bottom of the dish, I usually drain it with a turkey baster ½ way through cooking.

Thanks for stopping by - and watch out for neighbors who seem to be slinking away from your doorstep - you could be the victim of a zucchini drop.