My zucchinis have exploded – yes that’s a drastic overstatement. No bomb has gone off in my community garden plot. But the plants I thought were just too big to be zucchini and must be mysterious melons have sprouted limbs, yielding seven giant summer squash and counting.
Now, I’ve never had any trouble finding a use for zucchini. In fact, when I was helping out with a weekly canning class at a community organization in Verdun, I could get enough gluten-free zucchini bread and bread and butter zucchini pickles.
But my all-time favourite recipe is roasted zucchini with a ton of garlic. Again, not a literal tonne. (This is apparently my day of gross exaggeration.) And when a friend gifts you three heads of home-grown garlic, fresh from the soil, this is what you do:
Garlic-Roasted Zucchini
2 heads garlic (yes, two heads)
1 large, rock climber’s-forearm-sized zucchini (or three small zucchini)
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
Peel the cloves of one of the heads of garlic and chop roughly. Slice off the top of the other unpeeled head so that the tips are exposed (see photo above). Trim the ends and slice the zucchini into 1/4″ slices. Toss everything with the salt, oil and pepper and spread on one or two baking sheets (they can overlap – you can even fan them out so they’re pretty, but why?). Bake in a 375˚F oven for 10 minutes. Turn them over and bake 5-8 minutes more, until browned. The roughly chopped garlic pieces will be like chewy candy if they’re on top and like garlic confit if they’re below.
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