As a longtime apartment dweller, I’ve dabbled in the requisite windowsill herb garden, and I did once get reprimanded by my super for keeping a planter of sprouting radishes on my fire escape. But I have never known the true pleasures of tending a garden.
Oh, have I heard about the pitfalls, though. Over the years of writing this newsletter, I have received from readers multiple versions of the following: too much zucchini so much zucchini the zucchini is taking over who will save us!
Zucchini plants are, in a word, prolific. You’ve already made enough zucchini loaves and cakes to supply a bakery and have given enough away to curry favor with all of your neighbors. Now, Zucchini Bingo is the answer.
Save all the Zucchini Bingo recipes here.
Zucchini Pancakes | Summer Vegetable Skewers | Orzo Salad With Lentils and Zucchini | Smashed Zucchini With Chickpeas and Peanuts | Chilled Zucchini Soup With Lemon and Basil | Crispy Zucchini Hero | Summer Pasta With Zucchini, Ricotta and Basil | Sheet-Pan Zucchini, Tomatoes and Feta | Zucchini Salad With Bread Crumbs
During this month of Summer Veggie Bingo, perhaps neither Corn Bingo nor Peach Bingo really did it for you. Perhaps today’s the day. Cook your favorite row of three recipes, cook all nine if your garden runneth over, or cook none at all and wait for the next card.
There may not be a definitive song of the summer this year, but mine is Yasmin Fahr’s sheet-pan zucchini, tomatoes and feta. It’s so easy it’s almost funny. The other day, with sleep still in my eyes and a coffee not yet in hand, I threw it together in about 15 minutes to take to the office for lunch. Under the broiler, spears of zucchini and halved cherry tomatoes seasoned with a little cumin and soy sauce burnish and yield, becoming juicy and sweet. Salty feta browns lightly alongside them as a counter.
That might keep me well within that bottom row of recipes. Yasmin’s got another hit with her zucchini salad with bread crumbs, simple, seasonal and superb. The squash is tossed in a tangy dressing that does have anchovies, but I’m here with swaps galore: In their place, try a little white miso, soy sauce or tamari, caper brine or a combination. And as always, be sure to look for a vegetarian Parmesan if that’s what suits you.
That then leaves me with David Tanis’s pasta with zucchini, ricotta and basil, the highest-rated meatless zucchini recipe in all of New York Times Cooking. That seems like a delightful way to win bingo, if you ask me. “Nice use of the extra zucchini our garden is producing,” wrote one reader in the recipe comments. Would you look at that.
Your turn! I wouldn’t be mad at a journey that took you from Yasmin’s sheet-pan meal through Hetty Lui McKinnon’s chilled zucchini soup with lemon and basil, a verdant oasis on the hotter days of August, and ended with Melissa Clark’s summer vegetable skewers.
Finally, a mea culpa: Last week, the Peach Bingo card showed Sam Sifton’s sunny peach pie but linked to Melissa Clark’s upside-down peach cobbler. I’m sorry about that. As punishment, I will eat both.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Summer Pasta With Zucchini, Ricotta and Basil
Zucchini Salad With Bread Crumbs
Chilled Zucchini Soup With Lemon and Basil
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Tanya Sichynsky is an editor for the Food and Cooking sections of The Times and the author of The Veggie, a weekly vegetarian newsletter.
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