please give me your summer squash recipes

July 30, 2009 5:57 PM

I have 20 pounds (or more) of summer squash. What do I do with it?

My CSA had extra summer squash (both crookneck and pattypan) that nobody else wanted, so I gave it a good home. Concurrently, my boyfriend acquired three giant zucchinis. Our refrigerator is about to burst. I need to cook something.

I read the askme thread on pickling it, which I'm not really into (kitchen has little enough room as it is), I made a squashy pasta sauce two nights ago, I made scrambled eggs and squash last night, am making zucchini bread tonight, making crookneck squash gratin tomorrow night, and after that I just don't know.

I have cast iron pans, a gas range and oven, and very little refrigerator space. Also, I am hosting an international potluck Saturday, so exotic globe-trotting recipes that would go over well at a potluck would be very useful.

What can I make with all of this squash?

PS: Anyone in the Syracuse area? I have some squash for you.

posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel to food & drink (32 comments total)

Make this. It's delicious, and I bet you could do a variation where there are different kinds of summer squashes in the different layers. Pro tip: press down on each potato layer as you go, before you put the zucchini or cheese mixture on it. It makes it flatten down better.

And dammit, I was just in Syracuse Tuesday night!
posted by bedhead at 6:04 PM on July 30 [4 favorites has favorites]

Make a huge batch of Ratatouille, ramped up with way more squash, and freeze it in meal-sized portions for cosy winter dinners. You'll love yourself to bits one cold night when you can just warm up a yummy dinner.
posted by lottie at 6:05 PM on July 30

Or make Zucchini Bread.
posted by lottie at 6:07 PM on July 30

You can use thinly-sliced zucchini as a pasta substitute. Tastes good with tomato sauce.
posted by expialidocious at 6:11 PM on July 30

Make this. It's delicious, and I bet you could do a variation where there are different kinds of summer squashes in the different layers. Pro tip: press down on each potato layer as you go, before you put the zucchini or cheese mixture on it. It makes it flatten down better.

God, I was just coming to post this. It is INSANE! Our CSA newsletter included this recipe a couple of weeks ago and everyone in my family went nuts for it. It is officially in the rotation at our house now.

Zucchini pancakes can also be done with any type of summer squash, they freeze well and reheat nicely, and they're effing delicious. There's a recipe for them in Bittman's How To Cook Everything, and if you don't have that, Google is your homey. They can be topped in so many ways--with cheese, with plain yogurt, with applesauce...and while many recipes call for certain herbs (mint, parsley, basil) you can opt to leave those out and just top them with fresh herbs that coordinate with whatever else you're serving, once you've reheated a batch.
posted by padraigin at 6:13 PM on July 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

More zucchini bread! No, seriously, it's way, way, way easier to give away in that form. It will incur you much goodwill.

That said, I've also used up squash in mashed potatoes, meatloaf, casseroles, soups and salads. Salting the zucchini and summer squash will help you a lot in terms of texture in almost everything. Once you get rid of the excess water, it's a dynamite ingredient to play with.

I had a friend who made these awesome zucchini fries? (They might have actually been baked, I'm not totally sure on the details) It tasted like she'd seasoned them with curry powder and maybe dredged them in chickpea flour, but suffice to say, they had a great Indian flavor profile going on.

Usually squash is a side dish for me and not the main event, so most times I just pan fry and season them up according to whatever else I'm making. I haven't tried this myself, but I'm betting you could make some killer latkes by substituting squash for some of the potatoes. Ratatouille is a gimme, of course, but summer squash parmagiana is a treat too.
posted by Diagonalize at 6:16 PM on July 30

Make this.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 6:25 PM on July 30

I want to try Smitten Kitchen's lemony zucchini goat cheese pizza. It looks sooooo good.

I've been grating my zucchini squash and freezing it for future use in chocolate zucchini muffins. Nom.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:32 PM on July 30

calabacitas
posted by Sara Anne at 6:32 PM on July 30

I also want to try that recipe, MonkeyToes. Actually, just do a search on Smitten Kitchen for zucchini and you are likely to find many, many delicious things.

But, you know, if you want to mail me a loaf of zucchini bread, I won't argue.
posted by bedhead at 6:38 PM on July 30

If you have freezer space, freeze it. Just blanch pieces in boiling water for a few minutes to kill the enzymes that hurt the squash during long-term freezing, then dump in ice water to stop the cooking, drain/dry and freeze.

And a funny bit from a local columnist the other day:

Years ago, while attending church with my sister in the foothills, I reminded her she hadn't locked her car. "Honey, up here, the only time we lock the car at church is during squash season," she said.

Heh. I've been giving away enormous zucchini all summer.
posted by mediareport at 6:50 PM on July 30

Hell, just to add another Smitten Kitchen recipe to the mix: Ratatouille's Ratatouille. I'm making it as we speak. It's much prettier than the stew version, I think.
posted by runningwithscissors at 6:50 PM on July 30

Zucchini bread is really easy to make, too.
posted by mediareport at 6:50 PM on July 30

I just had this Three-Cheese Zucchini Lasagna for dinner. And I love this Sauteed Summer Squash. Between both recipes, you can use up 10 zucchinis/crooknecks!
posted by kittydelsol at 6:50 PM on July 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

Terrific thing I had at a friend's house the other day:

Individual parchment-paper pouches (think of folding a paper plate in half to create a calzone-like "D" shape) with these ingredients:
butter, chopped onions, zucchini, summer squash, and lots of fresh tarragon

They baked them for something like 15- 20 minutes, I'm guessing at the time but something like 350ish. Make a couple of test ones and you should find the sweet spot.
I usually dislike zucchini but these were fantastic.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:32 PM on July 30

We made this Cook's Illustrated summer vegetable gratin last weekend and it was sublime. Has several steps, but it tastes wonderful and complex, and those kooky food researchers found a way to make it less watery than usual.

It has layers!

It uses both summer squash and zucchini, although you could probably make it with all one or the other (it would have a less interesting appearance). It also calls for tomatoes (you can surely get some of those) and onions. These bake and caramelize some and really add to the flavor.
posted by amtho at 7:34 PM on July 30

maybe goat cheese in there too
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:34 PM on July 30

A friend's mother's delicious, dead-easy quiche-thing:

Ellen's Zucchini Pie

3 cups shredded zucchini
1 small chopped onion
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup oil
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of parsley
1 teaspoon of basil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together. Bake in 10 inch pie plate sprayed with Pam at 350 for 40 - 50 minutes. Good hot or cold.

I've made it successfully with summer squash--less colorful, but still tasty. If the squash is very moist, press it a little with paper towels after shredding so the pie won't be soggy.

If straight zucchini bread gets old, make half-banana-half-squash bread. You could probably tweak carrot cake to include some squash, too.
posted by hippugeek at 7:40 PM on July 30 [1 favorite has favorites]

If the squash is very moist, press it a little with paper towels after shredding so the pie won't be soggy.

You can also put it in cheesecloth, and gather the cheesecloth at the top, wring, and get out extra moisture that way. Kinda sorta works with paper towels as well.
posted by runningwithscissors at 7:50 PM on July 30

I make a variation of these Zucchini Cakes. They make me look forward to zucchini again (I had a CSA kinda burn me out on them).

They also freeze well after you've cooked them, and are easy to warm up for a quick lunch. mmmm.
posted by ugf at 8:12 PM on July 30

How about empanadas? I didn't find anything too impressive in the googleing, but they can be made either sweet or savory, and they freeze beautifully. Snacks for months.
posted by Gilbert at 9:40 PM on July 30

The summer squash gratin at 101 Cookbooks is amazing. I've substituted fresh corn for the potatoes to make it even more summery, but the secret to success is using heaps of fresh oregano, which is a perfect flavor complement to the squash.
posted by judith at 10:21 PM on July 30

FWIW, the Cook's Illustrated recipe I linked suggests tossing the sliced squash & zucchini with a teaspoon of salt, then letting it sit for a while in a colander. I think there's blotting afterward, too. This gets a lot of the moisture out, and helps the gratin be much less watery when it's done.

I believe they do something like this with the tomatoes, too.
posted by amtho at 6:03 AM on July 31

Yeah I'm going to go ahead and favorite this right now.....

I have a friend, a family member, and myself who grow zucchini. I have a 5 lb 2 feet long squash sitting in my kitchen as we speak. I got 3 decent sized ones ready to be picked and dozen or so smaller ones still growing. Something tells me this is going to be a God send later on in August. Thx Mefi!
posted by Mastercheddaar at 6:17 AM on July 31

Pattypan Parmesan, using an eggplant parm recipe?

Zucchini bread is a fantastic idea.

They also make a fantastic side dish simply halved and grilled with oil, salt, and pepper.
posted by Night_owl at 7:42 AM on July 31

If you still have a bunch left over, you can try donating them to the zoo!
posted by orme at 8:35 AM on July 31

This 101cookbooks.com soup recipe was very good, the buttermilk added a lot. Needed something more though. Maybe bacon?
posted by teragram at 9:01 AM on July 31

I have made this chocolate zucchini cake twice now this summer and it's amazing; I would (and did) ignore the boiled icing in the recipe. I made a cream cheese icing for it that was excellent or you could just melt chocolate chips on top.

The pattypan is tough, though. I too am inundated with giant flying saucer white pattypan squash and am not having much luck. I made a sort of casserole with bacon and cheese and bread crumbs and tomatos and my son actually ate it - face it, you can make a casserole with gym shoes and baon and cheese and it will be good - but that was the closest I came to success. A chef friend told me I need to pick them when they're tiny and eat them whole; if I grow them again next year I'll try that. Right now I'm enthusiastically giving them away to naive friends.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:28 AM on July 31

Drat, link is borked. Look for a recipe with 2 eggs, 1/2 c. butter and 1/2 c. vegetable oil, 2 c. of zucchini and IIRC 4 tbsp cocoa powder. it's got to be all over the internet.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:38 AM on July 31

I make a pretty mean Squash, Chicken, & Green Chile Casserole:

-Boil some chicken thighs (4 or 5) until done. Remove from the bone and shred the meat with a fork.
-Shred some cheddar cheese.
-Slice lots of squash lengthwise, somewhat thinly.
-Cook 1 to 2 cans of cream of chicken soup on the stove with 1/2 to 1 cup milk, adding chopped onion, chopped garlic, and frozen chopped New Mexican green chile to taste (i.e. LOTS!) Cook until combined and just bubbling, then let cool.
-Layer the soup mixture, the squash, the cheese, and the chicken in a greased baking pan. Top with the cheese.
-Cook in the oven at 350 degrees, until it gets bubbly and not too liquidy, usually about 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then serve.
-Serve with fresh salsa, sour cream, and warm tortillas. Make a huge pan of it, because it's even better as leftovers!
posted by vorfeed at 11:46 AM on July 31

I made the Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte that bedhead linked to.

Highly recommended, though a bit labor intensive, especially if you're putting in extra squash. If you have a mandoline or larger squash, the process would go much quicker.
posted by enfa at 5:09 AM on August 2

I can't believe I forgot to tell you to make a mock apple pie.

Once when I was staying with my grandparents in the summertime, someone left an apple pie on the kitchen table while we were out. We promptly had it for dinner, after which a phone call revealed that a friend of Grandma's had made it out of some of the zucchini Grandpa had given her. It really was uncanny.
posted by padraigin at 8:56 AM on August 2