To take a break from our usual (almost daily in the summer) way to cook up the zucchini (see mom’s summer squash), we prepared a classic French gratin, with grated zucchini, spinach, onions sautéed with bacon, a persillade of parsley and garlic, all bound together with a few eggs, tossed with Parmesan, and baked until golden brown. Zucchini has never tasted so good! I think the bacon might have something to do with it. And maybe the Parmesan. And the onions, and garlic. Okay, everything. The combination is perfect. The recipe looks more involved than it is. Most of the time is in the baking or in the allowing the zucchini and spinach to drain excess moisture. The hardest part is grating the zucchini (a breeze if you have a food processor) and the Parmesan. The trick to a successful recipe is squeezing out as much moisture as you can from the zucchini and spinach. Tossing the zucchini with salt and allowing it to drain for half an hour will help draw out a lot of its moisture. If you don’t do this I’m guessing that you might end up with something that is too loose, with too much moisture for the eggs to do their work as a binder. Best part? The recipe uses two whole pounds of zucchini! Which in our case should use up at least a day or a day and a half’s worth of garden produce. Enjoy. ;-) Let sit for 30 minutes or so, then squeeze out the remaining excess moisture with paper towels or a clean tea towel. Links: Zucchini and chard gratin - from Local Kitchen Blog
