zucchini | Denisekathleen's Weblog

A fresh feast of green zucchini, yellow pattypans and “music” variety garlic.

The inspiration for this new feature really arrived in the form of a free zucchini from the garden of a friend of a friend; a reminder of the abundance of the season. When we asked our farmer-friend Rebecca what was most prolific from the farm right now, she confirmed what we already new: zucchini and garlic. We left Moss Street Market with pattypan squash, music garlic and Rebecca’s favourite zucchini recipe. With a bit of online searching and I also found a recipe for zucchini bread that sounded good.

Rebecca’s Zucchini Pasta Sauce

Ready to cook…

Zucchini or other summer squash, cut into half-inch dice
3 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
A few fresh tomatoes, cut into one-inch dice
Olive oil; salt and pepper to taste plus shredded basil for garnish

Heat a frying pan on med-high heat. Sauté the onion in olive oil until golden and caramelized. Add the garlic and cook stirring for less than a minute. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste and then the zucchini. Stir to combine all the flavours then cover and cook for five minutes maximum. Uncover and add the tomatoes. Stir and cook a couple minutes until the tomatoes wilt and soften. Serve immediately over your favourite noodle with basil and a drizzle of olive oil.

GJ made fresh fettucini for our feast and we served the pasta with a gorgeous salad of greens, shaved cucumber and daikon, red pepper and scallion all from the farmer’s market.

For dessert I made two adaptations on a recipe I usually save for the autumn: Pear Frangipani Tart. I replaced strawberries and nectarines for poached pears in the long tart and grated some 70% chocolate into the tart shells before filling with frangipani and a half strawberry.

For dessert I made two adaptations of a recipe I usually save for the autumn: Pear Frangipani Tart. I replaced strawberries and nectarines for poached pears in the long tart and grated some 70% chocolate into the tart shells before filling with frangipani and a half strawberry.

The free zucchini was used to make the zucchini bread from this great recipe on Smitten Kitchen.

This recipe made either two loaves or 24 muffins, so I did one loaf and 12 muffins just for fun! Great flavour and texture.

We never cease to be overwhelmed (in a good way) by the bounty of our west-coast environment and the appreciation in our community of this bounty and those who grow and produce it. As food lovers, we know how lucky we are to live here. So many neighbourhoods in Victoria have weekly farmer’s markets, like Fairfield’s completely organic Moss Street Market, now in its 26th year. And now, right in our own downtown neighbourhood, a permanent Public Market is about to open. So, an idea for a new blog feature emerged: what is the most bountiful right now in our gardens and farms, and what will I cook with it? This week, in the next post, I will feature zucchini and garlic. I hope this will be a fun new focus for this blog I love. Happy eating and growing!

After many years of planning, the Downtown Public Market Society finally has a space. It should be open in the next few weeks at The Hudson building on Douglas Street between Fisgard and Herald streets.