Market's First Annual Zucchini Races

Cooking with the Market - Zucchini

In my dream trip to the Market, I would buy some of every vegetable from every vendor. I'm so taken by the colors, the shapes, and the textures of all the offerings. Each vegetable has its own character. At this time of year, we have an abundance of zucchini types to try.

Like the Italians, we call this summer squash zucchini; the French use courgette, and the English like courgette but sometimes call it marrow as well.

Although squash is indigenous to the Americas, zucchini seems to have sprung up as a spontaneous mutation in 19th century Italy and was brought to the US by Italian immigrants. A great gift, we would agree.

Technically a Fruit
Something else is odd about zucchini. Like tomatoes and pumpkins, it's technically a fruit, not a vegetable, since it's the zucchini flower's swollen ovary. But we think of it as a vegetable, and fruit or vegetable, zucchini is a much loved food.

Nutrition
Sadly, the zucchini is not a nutritional powerhouse. It's not lacking either, but when you compare its nutritional content with a vegetable like broccoli, well, you know immediately why zucchini has a delicate, mild taste and broccoli a stronger taste. Broccoli just has more "stuff" to it.

Zucchini_02

Zucchini is a good source for Vitamin C, potassium and fiber. Where it really shines, though, is in calories. This is one food that should be enshrined in all diets because it has so few calories.

Cooking Zucchini
Since the zucchini skin is so thin it's nearly transparent, the skin can be left on when cooking. Zucchini lends itself well to saut�ing, grilling, steaming, and stuffing. You can also slice it and eat it raw.

Here's a way to combine zucchini with some of the other deliriously delicious vegetables fresh at the Market. This is something that comes together fast but looks like you've spent a good amount of time preparing and tastes like just-picked vegetables on a lovely August day.

Zucchini Market Medley

2 tbsp. olive oil
2 zucchini (about 3 cups of thinly sliced zucchini)
1 medium tomato, peeled and sliced
1 medium Walla Walla onion, sliced thinly
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 sprigs of thyme
Salt and pepper

Sprinkle a little coarse salt over the peeled tomatoes in a colander. Let sit for an hour until the juices drain.

Put 2 tbsp. of olive oil in bottom of an au gratin dish. Toss in the sliced zucchini and spread the olive oil over all the slices. Remove half the slices and reserve.

Layer the slices remaining in the dish in fan style.Add salt and pepper and a couple garlic cloves. Arrange onion slices over the zucchini. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil. Place the tomato slices over the onions. Drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes. Add salt and a couple cloves of garlic.

Top with the reserved zucchini slices. Arrange them decoratively, layering one over the other in fan style. Add olive oil if any zucchini slices are dry. Top with two cloves of garlic, salt and pepper and the thyme.

Bake at 350, uncovered, for about half an hour. Check mid-way to make sure top zucchini slices are not drying out. The only liquid in this dish is the olive oil, so add olive oil if necessary. (You can always use a paper towel to dab up any extra oil once the dish comes out of the oven.)

Variations
Add a layer of steamed spinach before adding onions, or substitute steamed spinach for the onions and tomatoes. Or try using eggplant.