Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini

One of the first things to produce in my garden this year was the Zucchini. The weather's been extremely mild in San Diego (I'm talking average 70-73F every day for the last two three months). The tomatoes are growing wild but not ripening and the corn just grows taller and taller every day. But all the summer squash EXPLODED. We get a foot long cocozelle every day, a white lebonese bush marrow squash at least once a week (when we had a few hot days the plant produced one a week), one crooked neck yellow squash a day, one straight neck yellow squash a day, Zucchini every other day, grey zucchini once or twice a week, and a baseball sized white patty squash daily. a LOT of summer squash!

My favorite squash recipe is Zucchini cake, but I don't think I can make a thousand cakes with all our zucchini. I pickled a bunch last week, but we still are over flowing with squash. Thankfully tomorrow I'm having some friends coming over for dinner. I'm really bad with pre planning meals days before, but when I looked at my giant stock of summer squash I knew I had to do something with it. The goal's to create a three course meal with summer squash as my main.

I'm going to start with a goat cheese tart topped with herbs, thinly sliced zucchini and yellow squash circles and black olives. Drizzled with balsamic.

For the entree, I'd like to make a summer squash timbale, very similar to Giada's eggplant timbale. But I'll be using ground lamb and fava beans grown in the winter instead of beef and peas. For the sides I'll make a fresh heirloom tomato salad, fresh corn and cucumber salad with sweet peppers, mint zucchini pickles, and a green bean salad with homemade goat feta and lemon zest.

For dessert, I've asked Alex to make his famous zucchini bread.

I'm every excited to see how everything turns out tomorrow.

UPDATE:

The dinner went fabulously, but not without hiccups. I couldn't make the timbale with the beautiful thick slices of grilled squash. Apparently when a white lebonese bone marrow squash gets to the size of a large eggplant its got a LOT more tough seeds in it. I took a beautiful perfectly cylindrical cocozelle and sliced it width wise into perfect rings and layered the cake pan with it overlapping the edges. I filled it with my pasta mixture and arranged a layer of squash over the top and baked it. It came out beautifully.

I tossed the heirloom tomatoes with fresh mint; the fresh corn with sweet corbaci peppers, grilled chopped squash, and onions in white wine vinegar; and tossed the green beans in lemon juice, zest, and almond slivers. Amazing.

Goat Tart

Bake a pastry shell as instructed on the box.
Spread it with a stick of cherve (8oz soft white goat cheese) mixed with equal part cream cheese and 2 tbsp of sage.
Layer it with thin ring slices (3mm) of yellow sqash
Sprinkle kalamata olives on top.
A dash of nutmeg

Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes.

When its all done drizzle it with a thick balsamic and serve.

Squash Timbale.

1lb lamb
1 cup of diced red onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
zest nutmeg
2 cup diced tomato (you can use diced cans, but I don't like to use the juices)
1 cup of grated cheese
1/2 cup of corsely chopped parsley.
4 cup of cooked pasta

Saute the onion

Mystery K

There is a girl I fell in love with. She girl is absolutely perfect. Beautiful. Smart. Mysterious. Funny. And she is a foodie! I havn't met a girl who appreciated food like me. With her I've been cooking the most beautiful meals: fig pizza with danish blue and pruscitto, squash blossom/heirloom tomato/ basil pizza, and this wonderful lasagna.

Mystery K said she didn't like lasagna, but I had her eating tofu and raw cabbage which she said she hated. (Never got her to eat mustard, though.) So I made her a lasagna that she'd love. She loves meat so I decided to go with something special, lamb. Filled with summer flavors and products from the garden.

I was trying to make goat feta for a potluck this weekend and the cheese didn't cut well. I had to strain it and make it into farmer's cheese. It had such a great texture similar to ricotta I decided to use it in the lasagna. I started with the cheese and mixed it in with sautéed yellow squash from the garden. Mixed it with sage to make it savory, but added lemon zest, mesquite honey and nutmeg to sweeten it a bit.

I went with the basic meat lasagna technique by sautéing red onion then adding ground lamb with a bit of pork (for the fat). When the meat started cooking I added garlic, cumin, and cinnamon. After a few minutes I added diced tomatos, a can of tomato sauce, a good handful of italian parsley, lemon juice, and a dash of salt.

The result was amazing. It was so savory and rustic yet bright and light. A wonderful blend of flavor. I usually don't handle dessert, but for her I went the extra mile. I followed the dinner with a beer float made with vanilla ice cream, chocolate stout from Alpine Brewery, and a slash of orange liquor.

Rustic Lasagna

25oz fresh goat cheese (I think if you mix goat cherve with ricotta it'll do the trick)

1.5 cup of diced yellow squash

4 tbsp of a strong flavored honey (mesquite or sage)

3 tbsp fresh saged

1 large egg

1 large red onion

1lb ground meat

.3lb ground pork

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp cayanne

2 tsp whole cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

4 garlic cloves

2 cups of diced tomatoes

1 6-8oz of tomato sauce

1 cup of fresh chopped italian parsley

juice of half a lemon.

I layered the whole thing. A thin layer of cheese mixture on the bottom. With a layer of meat. Followed by cheese. Meat. Then on the top I poured all the juice from the meat mixture on top of the top layer of pasta.

Bake 375 for 60 minutes. Mine made a 14x8 pan of lasagna for 8 servings.