Grilled Zucchini 4 Ways
We have a big, beautiful zucchini plant in the garden and it is churning out the gorgeous green fruits at a rate of at least one a day. If you are facing a similar miracle of productivity, or your neighbors and relatives are giving you the overflow from their garden, or you succumbed to a basket of these lovelies at the farm stand, you may now have sautéed every piece of squash you’re willing to sauté. Fear not! Grilling zucchini adds a dimension of tasty caramel flavor while still letting the native green zucchini taste shine through. And grilled zucchini is more than just a side dish. Here are four ideas for using that tender, char-striped stuff:
Slice a zucchini into thin rounds before grilling. Layer the grilled slices in a dish with a lid that closes tightly and fits nicely into the refrigerator. Throw in some cloves of fresh garlic and cover it all with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, then announce that these slices are generally available to the family for chopping into eggs, putting on sandwiches, cutting into ribbons to top off salads, serving beside grilled meat as a kind of condiment, etc. And when the squash is all gone, you can use the garlic-n-grill infused oil for sautéing pasta toppings and frying eggs.
Cut a zucchini into manageable spears before grilling. Then chop the grilled spears into dice the size of fresh peas and substitute them in Orecchiette with Peas, Pancetta and Cream. If, like me, you are a vegetarian, you will need to substitute something for the pancetta too. I decided that the essence of pancetta-ness (apart from pork-ness) is smokiness and savoriness and pinkness, so I settled on red peppers, which went on the grill with the zucchini spears and got diced to pea-size too. The peppers turn the cream sauce a lovely shade of pink. And the flavor! Oink!
Another use for grilled spears: baking. Run the grilled zucchini through the food processor and use your favorite zucchini or banana bread recipe. Grilled zucchini tastes good with chocolate chips and walnuts, and makes the loaf moist, with a nice crumb. I kept one loaf plain, sliced it like pound cake, drizzled chocolate sauce over it and served it with well-sweetened lemon whipped cream.
Every good pasta salad is a treasure hunt where you get bites of different ingredients in each mouthful. Summer Pasta Salad Pesto and Olives with Grilled Zucchini, Ricotta, has great tanginess and is colorful to boot. Slice the zucchini into flat lengthwise slabs this time. After grilling, cut the slabs into one-inch wide pieces. This recipe takes very little time to make, even if your garden basil is ready and you decide to make your own pesto dressing. The lemon juice really makes the basil flavor pop, and keeps the pesto a nice bright green for some time.
