More Zucchini!

After the reaction I got on FB and elsewhere to my last zucchini recipe, one I almost didn't even post by the way, I figured I would post anything I make with zucchini! This dish is a Carano household staple in the summer. It's one of our faves. Start with a good sized zucchini and a summer squash. Sometimes I'll add a red pepper into the mix, but I didn't today. Just the lovely Italian zucchini I got at the farmer's market, the summer squash and one of those awesome heads of garlic.

Once again, cut your zucchini and summer squash into about 1/2 inch slices.



For the garlic, cut off the top of one head and then place it on a double layer aluminum foil.




Drizzle with olive oil the seal up the foil. You can roast this garlic right on the grill. As an aside, can you believe the beauty of that garlic from the Farmer's Market? Not even a hint of a sprout inside! Gorgeous! (sorry Mom - she's probably got a serious case of the heebies reading me gush about garlic since she hates it so much - yeah, she's Italian. Yeah I know she's anomaly).

Brush both sides of the sliced squash with extra virgin olive oil and then line it up on the grill. You can put the foil wrapped garlic somewhere on the grill too. I find that it's best to turn that garlic on the grill from time to time because if you leave it in one spot without turning it, it will burn on one side. If you want to add a red pepper to this, just put the whole thing on the grill and let it char on all sides. Turn as it starts to char. You want it to get black. When it's all black on every side, remove and let set for a few minutes until you can handle it. Then peel off all the blackened skin, remove the seeds and chop the pepper up.



Depending on the heat of your grill, the squash should take about 5-7 minutes on each side. I'm guessing here because well, I watch mine and when it starts to brown I turn it. I don't really time it. So watch the edges and if it starts to brown, turn them.




We like ours nicely browned, but not blacked/burned.




When you've turned it, go in and turn on your pot of water to boil. You can use any pasta you want.... Rotini, Penne, Rigatoni, Linguine whatever. It's all good. I happen to have linguine on hand so I used that.

Once all the squash is done and the garlic is roasted to a nice softness, it's time to assemble. I cut the squash pieces into quarters (depending on how big it is, you may have to cut it more), basically bite sized. Then squeeze out all the garlic cloves. Mix all the veg and the gar with the pasta when it's done and toss with about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Top with fresh parsley and basil, and then some Romano or Parmesan.


*sigh* This is my idea of heaven on a plate! If you'd rather make this a side dish instead of a main dish, you can check out a similar blog I did last year, using Orzo pasta.