Before you know it, harvesting zucchini becomes a daily activity, the vegetable drawer in the fridge is overrun with them, and you are searching for increasingly bizarre ways to include zucchini in every dish.
Is it really summer if you don’t have too many zucchini? Heading to our local crop swap at this time of year, it’s no surprise to find that everyone is hoping to offload their surplus zucchini. Invariably these are the items left on the table at the end of the swap, simply because everyone is in the same situation. It’s hard enough trying to use your own without adding more.
The adage that you shouldn’t shop when you’re hungry should apply similarly to when you are planting. Don’t plant summer vegetables when you have a winter craving. Each year, around this time, I make a mental reminder that next year I need not plant so many zucchini. I guarantee, however, that the same situation will occur again.
It starts with having to narrow down the varieties I like. I have a preference for a ridged zucchini, which are attractive when sliced, and particularly the long Florence variety. This has a drier, firmer flesh that works well for grilling or sautéing. They are prolific and mature with the flower still attached, which gives you the option of stuffing the flower.
My second go-to variety is the tromboncino, an elongated zucchini with a slight curve and a bulbous end that houses the seeds. I like these for that very reason – there is plenty of seedless flesh. This year, I also have golden zucchini, which I grow for the contrasting colour.
Once I’ve decided on the varieties to plant, I set about sowing the seeds, and this is where it all starts to go wrong. I should plant just a couple of each variety, but then I worry that they might perhaps not germinate. Our growing season is short, and I don’t want to miss out by having to start again. But then they all sprout and keep going (if you’re a novice gardener, zucchini are a good place to start – they are quite bulletproof, produce well, and there are varieties that grow well in small spaces, even pots).
By this stage, I’ve grown attached to them and feel awful about sending a few of the seedlings to the compost, so they all go in the ground. Before you know it, harvesting zucchini becomes a daily activity, the vegetable drawer in the fridge is overrun with them, and you are searching for increasingly bizarre ways to include zucchini in every dish.
Then there are the giant zucchini, the ones that manage to escape detection and grow to huge proportions. You spy them, often hidden beneath the leaves, and wonder how you could possibly have missed something so enormous. They present a different challenge – trying to use the somewhat spongy flesh and the oversized seeds. Sometimes, it’s a step too far, and the chickens and sheep are the grateful recipients.
It’s easy to complain about having too many zucchini, but really, I’m quite partial to a seasonal glut. Not only does it inspire some creativity in the kitchen, but gorging on one particular thing ensures that by the time it’s finished, you have well and truly eaten your fill. The wait until this time next year doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.
The following recipe will go some way towards using your zucchini surplus. A frittata is a good standby dinner. It's often what I turn to when I'm unenthused or uninspired by the ingredients in the fridge. It's a good way of using leftovers - cooked vegetables, bits of herbs and the ends of cheese. This recipe is a little more purposeful, using the profusion of summer herbs and zucchini. If I have some feta cheese in the fridge, I'll include that, but it's tasty without. It's almost impossible to have too many herbs in this recipe, but it will be lacking with too little, so be generous.
Zucchini and herb frittata
Serves 4 as a light meal
100 g fresh herbs, finely chopped, parsley, coriander, dill, chives, tarragon are all good
125 ml crème fraîche
zest 1 lemon
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 small zucchini, about 120 g, coarsely grated and the moisture squeezed out
8 eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 teaspoon salt
5-6 grinds of fresh pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Mix one tablespoon of the chopped herbs, the crème fraîche and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.
Put the remaining herbs, spring onions, zucchini, eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix well.
Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan, one that will transfer to the oven. Pour in the frittata mixture. Cook over a medium heat until the edges have started to set. Remove from the stovetop and place in the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the centre has just set.
Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes before turning the frittata out. Cut into wedges and serve with the herb crème fraîche.
Julia Matusik is the complete foodie. She has had market stalls, organised farmer’s markets, run a cafe, done postgraduate studies in gastronomy, conducted cooking classes and judged preserves and cakes at the Brisbane Show. She cooks most days and, perhaps most tellingly, she misses cooking when she goes on holiday.
Julia and her husband Michael moved from Brisbane to Geeveston, where they now live in an 1890s farm cottage, surrounded by a seasonal rhythm far more pronounced than the life they knew in the sub-tropics.
More of Julia Matusik’s writing and recipes can be found at www.juliaspantry.com.au.
