Caramelized zucchini rounds make a sweet salad from summer bounty
Right now my Community Supported Agriculture is, as it has for the past five years, delivering what seems like truckloads of fresh zucchini and summer squash to me every week.
Over the years I've figured out all sorts of terrific things to do with fresh summertime squashes, including the dark, rich Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread (dailyherald.com/article/20140625/entlife/140629347) I shared with you two years ago. Everyone who makes that zucchini bread comes back and raves about it.
This year, I wanted to share a new way to use-up excess zucchini, but that chocolate zucchini bread sets the bar really high. In desperation, I took a look at a farm field worth of zucchini recipes and what I came up with may be just as terrific, but in vastly different way; it's a warm zucchini salad.
Zucchini salad, Don? Really? How can a salad possibly beat a chocolate anything?
Wait a moment; don't move-on yet, if you go now you'll miss what may the easiest and best tasting salad you'll make all year. Certainly the best non-dessert use for zucchini you'll ever find. Big words? Yes, and I believe I can back them up.
In my search I came across The New York Times', 25-year-old, Jacques Pepin (a chef's chef) recipe for zucchini salad.
Pepin's recipe listed five ingredients; two of those were salt and pepper.
About now you're probably wondering why I went any further with Pepin's recipe.
The answer: the comments The New York Times' readers made after making Pepin's salad. One reader wrote: “Shockingly good.” After that comment who wouldn't want to know more?
A lot of the comments suggested different recipe improvements; many that made perfect sense. The picture shown had the zucchini rounds looking caramelized. Yet, when everyone followed the original recipe exactly — 400 degree oven for 7 minutes — not a single zucchini round browned.
One reader added thinly sliced onions to be roasted with the zucchini and really liked the result. Another reader suggested raising the oven's temperature to 450, preheating the pan to that temperature with some oil, and then tossing the zucchini and onions in a little oil before laying them on the sizzling hot pan. They also increased the time from 7 to 11 minutes. Voila, caramelized zucchini.
The last suggestion that appealed to me was finishing the salad with finely grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese.
I never made the salad the way Pepin created it. Instead, I followed the path The New York Times' readers created, believing they knew what they were doing; sort of a salad created by a foodies community.
I made the updated salad with a small tweak of my own. Pepin's original recipe seasons the zucchini with salt before roasting. Believing that the salt would make the zucchini give up water and make it even harder to brown, I seasoned my salad with salt after roasting.
How did my community-supported zucchini salad turn out? Amazingly good. Right from the first bite I knew this was a salad that I would make again. It was easy and definitely delicious. Give it a try.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@ theleanwizard.com.