On the same day in early June, unbeknownst to each other, a neighbor, who lets me use her backyard for a vegetable garden, and I picked up a few zucchini plants at a local farmers market. Instead of planting a trio of zucchini plants, I had six in the patch—three that produced smooth, dark green Italian squash and three of the fluted, gray-greenish Costata Romanesco heirloom variety (also called Roman-style squash). Suddenly, the question that always looms for every home gardener in Los Angeles around mid-summer—“What do I do with an absurd amount of zucchini?”—was answered with a strict household mandate: No one leaves our doorstep without a vegetable gift. This included my relatives, the mailman, the UPS guy, the couriers from FedEx and DHL, and a truckload of workmen who were resurfacing the school basketball court at the end of my block. My poor husband was dispatched to his tennis clinic clutching a racket in one hand and a heavy bag of surplus squash in the other to distribute among his court mates. Scouring the Internet as well as every cookbook I own, I fried zucchini, ricotta and lemon zest fritters, and baked loaves of zucchini-and-banana bread and a rich zucchini gratinée; marinated zucchini in white wine vinegar, olive oil and a bit of hot chile; sautéed it with olive oil and finely chopped oregano leaves; grilled it; and threw it in soup.
The summer’s over, but I am still forced to harvest squash on a daily basis. Just the other night, I took a small basket of young, six-inch long Costata Romanescos over to the house of my childhood friend, chef-restaurateur Nancy Silverton. Spinning off of Jonathan Waxman’s zucchini crudo recipe from her own cookbook, A Twist of the Wrist, Nancy sliced the raw squash into crisp, translucent rounds on a mandoline, then drizzled them with extra virgin olive oil, and let them sit for a half hour. She then tossed in salt, pepper, soft flecks of fresh thyme, and a couple of handfuls of salty, freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese. For such a simple preparation, it was amazing how different the dish tasted: The nutty zucchini flavor was intense enough to hold its own with the thyme and the sheep’s milk tang of pecorino. Because Nancy didn’t prep the squash by sprinkling kosher salt over it beforehand (many recipes call for this to release the excess liquid), each beautifully scalloped circle still had a nice, crunchy texture. Before I tasted her dish, I thought I’d never want to see a big-leafed, bushy runner again, but the versatility of zucchini continues to surprise me. Which doesn’t mean I’m not cutting back to two plants next year.
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