As I’ve noted before in this column, I am (or was) a terrible home vegetable gardener.
This is not good for someone who’s 100 percent Italian. Italians are known for loving to garden and, while I certainly gave it my best shot, I wasn’t very successful. The tomatoes got blossom-end rot, my pepper plants were host to swarms of aphids and my arugula went to seed before I could harvest it. So, I have never seen myself taking my last breath in a lush garden of beautiful red tomatoes like Marlon Brando in “The Godfather.”
There was one exception: zucchini. Not only did my zucchini bushes produce prolifically but so did those of my dear departed Aunt May and those of our gardening friends. Coming to dinner? Bring some zucchini for the host. And, if the summer season had seen abundant rainfall, the zucchinis grew to the size of baseball bats. (I suppose they still do and I advise you to avoid these if you can.)
Italians love their vegetables (verdure), and they do wonderful things with them. Zucchini, or courgette in Italian, are no exception. They marinate them for the antipasti table, stew and sauté them and stuff them with everything from mashed potatoes to sausage, cheese and breadcrumbs. But most fascinating of all is the Italian custom of stuffing golden zucchini blossoms with ricotta cheese and deep-frying them for a unique first course.
When I shop for zucchini in the summer months, I always look for those that are small and bright green. These young specimens have few seeds, are less fibrous and draw out less water when cooked. One of my favorite zucchini dishes is a casserole that layers thinly sliced zucchini rounds that have been lightly dusted with flour and sautéed. They are layered with halved cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, chopped basil and dried breadcrumbs. The casserole is baked until bubbling and served hot or at room temperature. It is a great accompaniment to grilled chicken or steak.
You might not think of zucchini as a topping for pasta, but its rather mild flavor combines so well with many other ingredients for a light warm weather “sauce.” A recent dish at Bricco on S. 3rd Street in Harrisburg combined homemade “rope” pasta with small, sliced zucchini, chunks of smoky bacon and lots of olive oil. It was different and delicious.
Spaghetti Carbonara is a familiar and popular Italian pasta dish, but one that is considered quite rich when made with the traditional bacon, eggs and cream. The following recipe, saved from my collection of old Food and Wine magazines, offers a nice twist on an old favorite—and it is easy. The cream is gone, the eggs remain, and zucchini replaces the bacon.
Spaghetti Carbonara with Zucchini
- Sauté 2 whole garlic cloves and 5 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Remove the garlic when golden.
- Cut 1 pound of small to medium-small zucchini into thin rounds. Add the zucchini slices to the oil remaining in the skillet and sauté them until golden brown, about 15 minutes. If the zucchini starts to draw liquid, turn up the heat until it evaporates. (Do not rush this step.) Then remove the skillet from the heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 2 large eggs and ¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese until well blended.
- Cook 12-16 ounces spaghetti according to package directions and drain.
- Place the cooked pasta in the bowl with the eggs and toss well. (The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs.)
- Add the zucchini and a handful of chopped fresh basil. (Zucchini and basil pair beautifully.)
- Add some salt and pepper if you like and perhaps extra Parmesan, and you are done!
I like to serve a pasta dish like this with a platter of cold, thickly sliced ripe tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Tomatoes and zucchini: there’s no more “Italian” than that.
Now, I must be honest. If one of those “baseball bat zucchini” should make its way to your kitchen, you don’t need to relegate it to the compost pile. Try grating it for spicy zucchini bread, a filling for omelets or perhaps putting it in minestrone soup. Italians are very good at finding a use for everything, even 3-pound zucchini!
