Seasonal Spotlight: Zucchini

Zucchini: one of the most popular summertime vegetables that I have found so many ways to use. My earliest memory of eating them for the first time was when I was in middle school. I remember my late grandmother making breaded zucchini as a side with dinner when I was visiting her house once, and I think my love for them was born from that point on. Since then, I’ve made them as fritters, used them in yellow squash soup, and consumed them in noodle form. As tasty as they are in smaller quantities, I am excited to share the different ways I’ve experimented with zucchini in entree form

Last weekend, I went back to Long Island to see my family, and we ate zucchini every night. Usually when I visit, my dad requests that I cook at least one day I’m there, and last Friday, he and my mom wanted pasta with oily, garlicky zucchini, which he makes when they want something simple that won’t take too long. Luckily for me, what I assumed would be overly complicated at first because of how charred I had to get the zucchini turned out to be child’s play.

In a pan, I fried up a single zucchini that I cut into half-moon-shaped pieces in olive oil over medium-low heat. After a few minutes, when the skin began to blister but not change color, I added two sliced garlic cloves to the mix and a few cranks of salt, then continued stirring so nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan. I knew the zucchini was ready to be mixed with the penne I’d been boiling in a separate pot on the stove when both sides of the zucchini bits were golden-brown. I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious it was with minimal additives.

Another dish that I enjoyed while I was home was my dad’s stuffed zucchini, which is made by cutting a zucchini lengthwise and hollowing out the middle, filling it with a mixture, then grilling (or baking) it until tender. My dad did his “Italian style” with a tomato sauce meatloaf mixture and layering it on top of zucchini from the grill. I’m a big fan of zucchini boat-style, and I love the cheeseburger-flavored ones my partner and I make at home in our air fryer. Feel free to do yours however you want, though! The filling can include ground meat, cheese, grains, vegetables, herbs, breadcrumbs, or a combination; it’s up to your personal preference.

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