Friday, June 22, 2012

Zucchini Recipe Round-Up

Summer is upon us and we all know what that means - more zucchini that you can shake a stick at! In the CSA baskets, at the farmer's markets, at the grocery store - zucchini is everywhere. So much so that my friend Becky sent me a text last night saying, "Post some zucchini recipes on your blog, please! They're coming up in my garden and I need some new ideas!"


A few years ago before she moved away to Ohio Becky and I had made a friendly wager about when her boyfriend would propose - which I lost (but they are happily married!) - and therefore had to cook dinner for her and another friend. She chose my zucchini-cabbage-bean fritter as one of the dishes I made. I should have remembered she loved zucchini! So, I did what any self-respecting blogger would do when faced with a request from a friend. I rallied the troops! Here are some favorite zucchini recipes* from Food Bloggers Network members (in no particular order):




This reminds me of a funny story from my Italy days. I used to teach English at a local language school. None of the students wanted me as their teacher because I spoke "American" and not "English." That's right, I had no idea I spoke "American" until I moved to Europe. I got so accustomed to this that I developed a trick for getting students to stick with me instead of switching to one of the British instructors. I'd begin by telling them, "OK, well, you're stuck with me for today, but you can switch tomorrow if you don't like my class. Let's work on some common words..." and I'd go through all the Italian words that I knew were more similar to my "American" way of speaking. "OK, so you live in an appartamento, right? We say apartment. But, you want to learn "English" so they would say "flat." And to get to your apartment you take the acensore, which is an elevator in the US, but a "lift" in England. And let's say you're hungry - you go to the market and buy some zucchini and arugula - yes, we say it just like in Italy - oh, but right, in the UK they say "courgette and rocket." And I would go on like that for the entire first class with a huge list of words on the board. I never had a single student go through with it and actually switch. Sneaky, I know, but I did love my students. OK - back to the courgettes! Er... zucchini...






Thom has been asking me repeatedly if I've had his mother's Zucchini Boats. I have not. I'm thinking this means he wants me to get the recipe and make them.


Oh, zucchini blossoms! How I love you so! I can't wait to grow my own zucchini just for the blossoms. I have another story about working with an Italian chef to make zucchini blossom fritters, but I think that needs to wait until I can remake the recipe!




And here are some of my recipes using zucchini:





So go ahead and bookmark this post - no zucchini will ever go bad in your fridge with all this creative inspiration from the Food Bloggers Network!

Happy cooking!


*All recipes and photos linked with written permission of the blog owner. To find more recipes from FBN members click on the Food Bloggers Network tab at the top of this website and type a keyword in the search box.

14 comments:

  1. Tee Hee, I am about to try out a recipe I was taught last week by a tuscan chef using courgettes/zuccini;) Much the best Anglo/American exchange of words is suspenders. For us, it's what you call a garter belt. So make sure your other half knows if you send him clothes shopping in the UK or he might get some very funny looks:)

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    1. My Grammie was British so I definitely grew up with an influence of British culture but yes - my speech is American. :) Suspenders is a good one. And of course that word that means bum in America and something else entirely in the UK! And there's slang which is practically incomprehensible to me! ;-)

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  2. What a wonderful collection of zucchini recipes! There's some delicious ones there that I'm definitely going to try.

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  3. That Corn and Zucchini Bread looks GOOD!!! Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread - Yum! Goodness, they all look good!!! Thanks for sharing this round-up, Jess!

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  4. Oh, they all look so good! Thanks for sharing this round-up.

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  5. What a great round-up!! Love all the recipes.

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  6. Wow, I will have to put zucchini onto my list of Food on Friday ingredients to do.

    Have a great week.

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  7. I was just in the store looking at a Company's Coming Cookbook for only zucchini recipes:D Thanks for compiling the list.

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  8. Love zucchini!!! I just made taco zucchini boats and zucchini ribbon "noodles" just a bit ago. It's do versatile

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  9. How did I miss this? Thank you for spotlighting some great zucchini recipes!

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  10. I am booking marking this page for sure. I have a garden about to be full of ripe zucchini. I am going to be swimming in it.

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  11. Thanks for sharing these recipes. It's zucchini season after all!

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  12. Thanks for posting this little round up. My parents keep giving me tons of zucchini from their garden and I have so much I don't know what to do with it. This helps A LOT!

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