Baked Zucchini
A friend once quipped, “You know you have no friends if you don’t find zucchini on your doorstep in the summer!”
Zucchini: The Unsung Hero of the Veggie Garden
Yes, it’s true, zucchinis ( sometimes known as a “courgette”, or “summer squash”) can be prolific in the garden, with one plant producing more zucchinis than many people know what to do with. And who ever plants only ONE seed??? Hence, the abundance of this undervalued vegetable makes it the butt of many jokes. Of course, adding to the joke material is that a perfect-sized squash, if not picked in time, can grown at an incredible rate, to be a huge whopper. Baseball bat, anyone?
According to Wikipedia, “in a culinary context, the zucchini is treated as a vegetable, which means it is usually cooked and presented as a savoury dish or accompaniment. Botanically, however, the zucchini is an immature fruit being the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower.” Move over, tomatoes, you’ve got company!
Baked Zucchini
Type
Vegetable
A superbly simple recipe that I made for a family celebration last night. These baked zucchini were quick and easy to prepare ahead of time. Everyone at the dinner table agreed the recipe was a keeper!
Ingredients
- Zucchinis (6-7″ in length)
- Olive oil
- Chopped garlic
- Roma style tomatoes
- A mix of grated Romano and herbed mozzarella cheese (from the Elora market),
- Chopped basil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut small (6-7″) zucchinis in half (making sure to use similarly-sized zucchinis, to ensure that they all bake in the same amount of time), and shave a bit off the bottom, so they lay flat.
- Brush them with olive oil, top them with lots of chopped garlic, some Roma style tomatoes, a mix of grated Romano and herbed mozzarella cheese (from the Elora market), and some chopped basil.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Pop them into the oven about 35 minutes before supper at 375 degrees F, and bake until the zucchinis are cooked, but not mushy.
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