By Expat Chef
It hits me right around September. This longing for warm, earthy, savory-sweet winter squash dishes. I am a nut for pumpkin. Or butternut. I spend 12 hours solid making Butternut Squash ravioli, pasta and all.
But it is not fall. It’s summer and the Farmer’s Market is flooded with summer squash. Four for a dollar, and a pound or so each. Squash everywhere. It’s not a complaint, just that summer squash pales in color, texture and flavor to my orange favorites.
I’ve tried to love it. I have. It doesn’t taste bad. Or good. It just doesn’t taste like much of anything. Unless you add a lot to it, that is. But seriously, eating Zucchini Bread is NOT like eating a vegetable. It’s not even bread. It’s cake, okay, cake. Zucchini fritters? Fried batter. Hot, greasy carbs. Vegetable oil, yes, vegetable, no.
I’ve also tried it seared, steamed and sautéed. I was not impressed, even with lots of garlic and butter. Who doesn’t like garlic and butter? It works for SNAILS for crying out loud. Snails. But the squash just comes out a bit mushy. I have to force myself to eat it. I’m no supermodel. I like to eat, it’s not something I force. Or force up later.
Surprisingly, my toddler showed me the light. She has this odd habit of taking the veggies off the counter and just gnawing them. What do you do as a parent, scold your child for eating vegetables? I let it go. It does, however, look like a crazed, finicky squirrel has run amok in the kitchen; little bites out of this and that everywhere you look. She was munching on the raw zucchini top and decided Mom needed a bite, too. She shoved it in my mouth, then down the front of my shirt.
“Hey,” I thought, while retrieving the half-eaten remains, “not bad.” Crisp and light. After all that baking, boiling, battering and breadifying, a moment of insight. It was a texture thing. Operator error.
Back to the kitchen. With tons of summer squash on hand, red chard, spinach and tomatoes, there was but one thing to make: vegetable lasagne. Because everything tastes good with cheese, pasta and tomato sauce. Everything. Taking a lesson from my card-carrying member of the Under Two set, I did not cook the squash before adding it to the dish. After baking, it was still tender crisp. And good.
Three pans of lasagne later, I still had a huge zucchini and three large pattypans (all with teeth marks) sitting on the counter. What now? Mario to the rescue. I love Mario Batali. There’s a fantastic recipe in his most recent book, “Molto Mario,” for marinated zucchini. The instructions are very specific: Keep the zucchini crisp. The end result was fantastic with tons of flavor. Yet the ingredients were few and basic; red wine vinegar, olive oil, spices and fresh basil. Less is Molto.
It was the best zucchini I have ever had next to the half-gnawed raw bit stuffed into my mouth. Thus, from the mouth of a babe and the words of a top chef, simultaneously, I learned. Squash shalt not be Squish. At least, not in my kitchen.
You can find the Expatriate Chef hanging out in her kitchen, glass of wine in hand and pining for Mario Batali.
You can find the Expat Chef in her kitchen.
