Farmers Weekly Review

Lock your car, put your truck in the garage! Make sure your windows and doors are closed; if not, your neighborhood gardener might just give you a few (or 10) baseball bat-sized zucchini. And who can take one more zucchini? I mean, who can take another batch of zucchini muffins?

Zucchini may not win the flavor Olympics, but its meaty, mild flesh can be used countless ways in recipes from appetizers to desserts. And it can save you money — and make some dishes healthier. What more could we ask for? If only zucchini could do the dishes.

I know I preach every year that the key to getting the most flavor out of your home-grown vegetables, herbs and fruits is knowing when to pick them at the peak of flavor and texture. I lament that no one ever asks this most important question and often report to me that they are disappointed with how their home-grown produce “just doesn’t taste or seem right.’”

There is no produce grown that falls under the “bigger is not better” more than zucchini. Zucchini are a member of the summer squash family, and ideally should be harvested when their diameter is no wider than 2 inches, and their length no greater than 6 to 8 inches. (There is some wiggle room there, depending on the variety).

But most people think prime zucchini are baseball bat-sized. By then, the zucchini, have changed texture to a heavier, more course, almost woody feel. And the flavor, well, there is no flavor. I compare the flavor of those overgrown beasts to nature’s Styrofoam peanut. But we can also use this to our advantage in the kitchen.

When zucchini are overgrown, they are great extenders in recipes. We all know the bake sale zucchini bread and muffins. The addition of grated, squeezed-out zucchini (to remove some of the water content), lends to creating a moist bakery product that also does very well in the freezer. But is that where it ends? Absolutely not. There is so much more.

Add zucchini for health! If your last cholesterol reading was more like a lotto number, why not replace a third or even a half of any ground meat recipe with grated zucchini to lighten up those meatballs, meatloaves, sloppy joes and tacos? Just remember to always squeeze out the liquid of the fresh-grated zucchini before adding to avoid an overly moist recipe.

I know it is a bit of a food craze that has passed, the popularity of replacing zucchini for pasta, creating zoodles (instead of noodles) but it is still a great twist on those pasta recipes. I know most of us have that kitchen contraption that shaves the zucchini into zoodles (the one that causes you to be unable to open your utensil drawer?) I use that noodle-i-fier to make other veggie noodles from carrots to broccoli stems to parsnips.

But wait, just like the Ron Popiel Pocket Fisherman infomercial, there is still more! If you caught them at the right size, zucchini can be cut into slices to make zucchini parmesan or cheesy garlic zucchini “bread.” A great way to use optimum-sized zucchini, where you can get the kids involved in the kitchen, is to make zucchini “boats” and let them fill them with a wide variety of savory fillings before you bake them till tender.

To create the boat, slice the zucchini lengthwise (or as the kids today say “portrait”) and scoop out the center seeds. Then slice off a small slip of the outside of the zucchini so it sits flat for filling. Then let your or your child or grandchild’s imagination and appetite take over.

You can also use zucchini like a cucumber in salads, just get out that mandolin slicer and set it to thin to get zucchini ribbons.

No discussion of the uses of zucchini can be complete without the most unusual part of the plant: zucchini blossoms. Several ethnic cuisines have used these big, beautiful sunshine-yellow blossoms as a vessel to be filled with seasoned softer cheeses and then lightly battered and fried.