The story goes that everyone in Brazil drinks caipirinhas when it’s oppressively hot. And because Brazil is on the equator, it’s oppressively hot pretty much all the time.
The ingredients for a caipirinha couldn’t be simpler: a lime, sugar, and a couple ounces of a Brazilian alcohol called cachaça, a sort of cousin to white rum. Most rum is made from fermenting molasses, a byproduct of sugar production. Cachaça is made by fermenting unprocessed sugarcane juice. It tastes like a slightly sour, faintly musky rum. That sourness plays extremely well off crushed limes.
Because the caipirinha — which is apparently pronounced “kai·pr·ee·nyuh“ — is so entrenched in Brazilian culture, it has inspired strongly held beliefs and heated disagreements. One of the most strongly argued caipirinha disputes is whether it needs to be made with granulated sugar, as caipirinha purists insist, or if it can be made with sugar syrup, like 95 percent of the sweetened cocktails in the world.
Because of my deep commitment to world peace, I decided to try the two versions side by side.
Here is the classic recipe for a caipirinha:
1 lime, sliced into wedges
2 teaspoons table sugar
2 ounces cachaça – which is apparently pronounced “kuh-shah-sah,” which sounds like an obscure type of martial arts weapon. “This is no ordinary murder, Higgins; this man was killed by a cachaça.”
Muddle the lime wedges and sugar in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. There will be a lot of juice, so don’t smash the limes like you might normally with a muddler. Grind it down hard, for longer than you might normally, but make sure you don’t splash.
Add cachaça and ice, then stir thoroughly with a bar spoon and pour into a rocks glass. Some bartenders suggest garnishing it with a lime wheel, but there is so much lime in this drink already, that seems a bit like overkill.
The theory is that the sugar acts like an abrasive and helps strip citrus oil out of the lime peel. That seems unlikely; logic would suggest that the crushed lime produces so much acidic juice that the sugar is dissolved almost instantly and doesn’t have time to abrade anything. But let’s withhold judgment; sometimes Reality ignores Logic mercilessly.
OK, let’s set this aside and make a second caipirinha, with sugar syrup. Do everything the same, but add two teaspoons of simple syrup at the same time as the cachaça.
Crush, crush, crush, pour, pour, clink, clink, clink. Stir, stir. Pour/clink/gurgle. Let’s take a look at the two caipirinhas side by side.
They both look and smell delicious.
Taking a sip of the caipirinha made with syrup: **Raised eyebrows** This is a very solid cocktail. It’s a little sour and musky from the cachaça, just sweet enough, and a love letter to lime.
That’s going to be tough to beat. Let’s try the classic caipirinha: **Pupils dilate, ceiling opens up, the sound of angels singing fills the kitchen**
I realize that I’m still standing in my kitchen, but for just an instant I was sitting on a patio surrounded by tropical flowers while samba music played in the background.
The caipirinha made with sugar is better by several orders of magnitude. This is the real love letter to lime, written with a fountain pen, using sophisticated metaphors and a complex rhyme scheme. In comparison, the other one was a late-night text, asking, “U up?”
(I drank both versions, by the way; I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.)
I think I’ll open a summer-only pop-up bar called Cai-Piranha.
In April 2024 Joe Savitch left his job of 10-plus years to start doing mobile street vending.
“We originally were looking at various franchise concepts and ultimately decided that that was still working for somebody else. So using my background in marketing and branding and web development and all the things that I had done for the last decade or so, we came up with this concept kind of through a series of just organic conversations,” Savitch said. “We ultimately decided to center our food around all kinds of things in cones — from snow cones to waffle cones. We put fun things like chicken and waffles and taco cones, which we premiered this year at the Taco Tour. We also make a handheld Japanese-style crepe cone. Our plan is to be creative and leverage our creativity as much as we’ll leverage the cones, and have some fun with our food.”
What is your must-have kitchen item?
A sharp paring knife. It is a simple yet versatile tool that can do many jobs and often goes overlooked.
What would you have for your last meal?
Probably chicken broccoli with ziti. My mom would make this for me as a kid and I haven’t had it in a long time. … And since carbs wouldn’t be of concern any longer, I’d probably have some cheesy garlic bread and a glass of red wine.
What is your favorite local eatery?
Tucker’s. … I always enjoy going to Tucker’s for their incredible creations.
Name a celebrity you would like to see eating at your food truck?
Alan Ritchson. This also was a tough one. My first thought was Anthony Bourdain or Tyler Florence, but I think Alan would be a lot of fun to see at the truck. I think he would place a big order. To maintain that Reacher physique, he’s got to get a lot of calories.
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
Chicken & Waffles — fried chicken in a waffle cone. This is one of the first items we conceived when working on this project. It is a non-traditional twist on a classic dish that everyone enjoys.
What is the biggest food trend you see in New Hampshire right now?
Authenticity — and freshness. With so many restaurants cutting back staff in favor of digital tablets and ordering, I see many customers just looking for an authentic interaction and ordering experience. On top of that, they are looking for fresh ingredients. Most customers are interested in hearing where we get our various products — the ice cream, maple syrup, soda, etc.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home? Why?
I love to make Thanksgiving dinner. I get to break out fun recipes from the past and look for new things to mix in every year. My kids help me make the snowflake rolls and my oldest has taken over pie duties. We get to work together and have fun. They may only end up eating the rolls and pie, but it isn’t about the eating; it’s about the cooking. —John Fladd
Chicken Broccoli with Ziti From Joe Savitch
1 pound ziti cooked and drained 1 pound broccoli (can be frozen steamed or fresh steamed) 1 pound chicken breast chopped into bite size (1-2-ounce) pieces flour 1 pint of half & half salt and pepper for seasoning oil
Prepare the noodles and steam the broccoli. Set aside. Cut the chicken into 1- to 2-ounce pieces. Dredge in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Pan-fry in a little bit of oil. Cook the chicken until it browns on both slides, about 5-8 min. There should be enough flour/oil to create a roux in the pan. If not, add a little more flour and butter (1:1 ratio) until there is a light roux formed in the pan. Add the half & half and heat until it simmers. If you want it to be saucier add some chicken broth.
Add the chicken, broccoli and noodles to the pan and heat through. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
Ashyana Hall is in the final stages of launching Nashua’s first dog cafe, Pup In a Cup.
“It’s kind of a passion project that I started around two years ago,” Hall said. “I’ve been a dog trainer for about a decade and the biggest problem that I kept finding with my clients is they have nowhere to bring their dogs in the winter to practice socialization and be out with them. And especially this year, this year’s a great example of we’ve just been in a heat wave. They have nowhere to bring their dogs in the summer either now.”
Hall’s idea was to give dog owners a place to sit down with a snack, a cool drink or a cup of coffee, maybe meet some fellow dog people, and give their dogs a calm, vacuum cleaner-free space to relax.
“We’re going to have a full drink and snack menu for the dogs,” she said. “That’s mirrored to the human menu, so we make our own teas and smoothies and with that we have teas and smoothies that are dog-safe, dog-friendly and that are for them as well. The snacks look the same, or as close as we can get as possible. So you could go and enjoy a macaron or something like that with your dog.” The cafe’s baked goods will come from Lighthouse Local in Bedford. “They do a bunch of really cute doughnuts, they do cupcakes, and scones,” Hunt said. “So they do a bunch of different, just fun sweets and cookies. All the bakery goods for the humans are locally sourced from there.”
Pup In a Cup will also have two Quiet Rooms available for dogs, or even human children, who are still working on their people skills. Hunt sees them as a way to make the café more inclusive.
“As a trainer,” she said, “most — half if not more — of my clients were there for behavior modification, reactivity, things like that. You can rent [a Quiet Room] out for about 50 minutes and be out in public without your dog getting overwhelmed by there being too much going on because your dog’s not ready for it.”
At this point, Pup In a Cup is almost ready to launch. Human restaurants are inspected by the Health Department, but animal food — including food for dogs — has to go through the Department of Agriculture.
“The main thing that’s getting approved right now is the kitchen itself,” Hall said. “We’re essentially creating an airlock system [around the kitchen]. There is absolutely no direct access from the area where the dogs and people are to the kitchen. ” Hall said that she is excited to get started.
“I’m looking forward to the experience of it all,” she said.
Pup in a Cup Pup In a Cup is expected to open in the second half of August. 295 DW Highway, Nashua, pupinacupcafe.com
Jody Donohue knew she was on to something as she watched a woman funnel a two-pound whoopie pie into her mouth.
Donohue’s company Great New England Craft and Artisan Shows (gnecraftartisanshows.com) is in charge of the Great New England Food Truck Festival (gnefoodtruckfest.com) Saturday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hampshire Dome (34 Emerson Road, Milford, 673-8123, hampshiredome.com). Fourteen food trucks will be set up outside the Dome, with 35 vendors inside. There will be live music, a children’s area, and a whoopie pie eating contest.
Which brings us back to the whoopie pie woman.
Donohue’s company was putting on a similar event on the Seacoast in July.
“Someone brought a gallon zip-lock bag,” she said. “As soon as the timer started and they said ‘go,’ she took the whoopie pie, stuffed it into the gallon bag, squished it all up, ripped a hole in the corner, and was squeezing it into her mouth. Is that insane or what?”
Although this is the first year the Food Truck Festival in Milford will include a whoopie pie eating contest, it is the seventh year for the Festival itself. Donohue is especially excited about the venue.
“We’ll be inside and outside the dome,” she said. “It’s a 94,000-square-foot dome! It’s an air-supported structure; there aren’t any beams inside. It’s beautiful.”
Most of the vendors inside the dome will be artisan craftspeople. There will be jewelry-makers, hot sauce vendors, and pet product designers. Donohue emphasized the variety of crafters in attendance.
“We have someone that makes cards out of aluminum cans,” she said. “She cuts aluminum cans up for her designs and makes her own cards. We’ll have 3D printing materials there. There’s a sticker booth with thousands of stickers. We have Make Your Own Teddy Bear [station] this year. You can pick out the fabric and then go through the experience of stuffing it, choosing accessories for it if you want, and naming it.”
The main draw for a food truck festival, of course, is the food trucks, which will be parked outside the Dome.
“We have 14 different food trucks here this year,” Donohue said. “You’re going to find anything from trolley dogs, popcorn, fresh squeezed lemonade, Mexican food like burritos and tacos. We will have sausage, peppers, onions. We’re doing a cannoli truck. We have Kona ice there. We’ll have a Jamaican truck, a pizza truck, Chinese, a coffee truck [and a] barbecue truck.”
When not eating food truck food, attendees can play cornhole and listen to live music. In the KidZone, there will be bounce-houses, face-painting, bubble play and chalk-drawing activities. “We’ll have a raffle,” Donohue said. “It’s a scratch ticket raffle. You have a chance to win $100 in scratch tickets and those proceeds benefit a local lacrosse program.”
Donohue is looking forward to a good turnout this year.
“It’s open to the public, and it’s a great way for everyone to come together, enjoy themselves for a day, and hopefully forget about life for a while,” she said.
And enjoy the drama of the whoopie pie contest.
The Great New England Food Truck Festival Where: The Hampshire Dome, 34 Emerson Road, Milford When: Saturday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Info: gnefoodtruckfest.com Admission: Adult tickets are $8 each, children age 14 and under attend free. Parking is free.
• New doughnuts: What the Fluff! Donuts (87 Amherst St., Manchester, 233-1215, whatthefluffdonuts.com) slated to hold its grand opening on Thursday, Aug. 1. Located across the street from Victory Park and the Victory Parking Garage, What the Fluff! will serve “exceptional donuts [made] with the finest ingredients,” according to the website.
• Weenie Weekend: Celebrate Weenie Weekend Five at Candia Road Brewing Co. (840 Candia Road, Manchester, 935-8123, candiaroadbrewingco.com) Saturday, Aug. 3, and Sunday, Aug. 4. To commemorate the release of its Vienna lager, Wiener Lager, Candia Road will devote its entire menu to 24 different hot dogs.
• Tomatoes forever: Learn how to preserve fresh tomatoes to make salsa and sauces at Joppa Hill Educational Farm (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford, 472-4724, sites.google.com/theeducationalfarm.org/joppahillfarm), Sunday, Aug. 4, from 2 to 3 p.m. This class will be taught by Betsey Golon, certified master food preserver by the University of Maine. Tickets are $20 per person if purchased online, $25 at the door. This event requires registration.
• Veggies forever: The Tuscan Market (Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 912-5467, tuscanbrands.com) will host a class called Pickling, Italian Style! on Sunday, Aug. 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. Participants will learn to make homemade giardiniera and some knife skills, too. Tickets are $70 each through the Market’s website.
For 11 months of the year, zucchini stays in the background. Then, suddenly in August, it’s everywhere. Whether it’s you or a neighbor or a coworker who has planted way too much, you may find yourself struggling to find something to do with five or six zucchini. Per week! Per bush!
Addie Leader-Zavos is a pastry chef and the co-owner of Eden’s Table Farm and Farm Store (240 Stark Highway North, Dunbarton, 774-1811, facebook.com/EdensTableFarm). She is all too familiar with the dangers of going into the growing season with a cavalier zucchini attitude.
“I think a single plant just produces a lot of zucchini in a short period of time,” she said. “So you end up with just too much. And then the worst part is, if you fall behind, the zucchinis just get bigger, so you just end up with more. You have to stay on top of it, but even staying on top of it, you’re getting too much. So you get lazy about picking it, but then you have even more.”
As opposed to the many, many varieties of heirloom tomatoes Leader-Zavos and her husband, Michael Williams, planted this season, they only planted three varieties of zucchini.
“We grow Haifa zucchini,” she said, “which is a Lebanese type. And we are growing Dark Star zucchini, which is like a more traditional dark green zucchini that we’re harvesting a little bit smaller. This year we’re trying a new one called Reinau Gold, which is a gold zucchini. They are a little bit smaller and they have a little bit more of a delicate flavor.”
Her advice for cooking with zucchini is to think about its specific qualities and what it would bring to a dish.
“I would definitely say zucchini adds moisture to baked goods,” she said. “It can be a little vegetal, if you’re cooking a savory thing; it can be a little sweet if you’re baking it into something sweet. But a lot of what it’s doing is adding moisture and a little bit of texture. By the time you finish baking like a muffin, there really isn’t a lot of texture for your zucchini left. But if you’re doing something like a fritter, then you do get some nice texture from it.”
So what to do with zucchini?
1. Something sweet
Brown Butter Zucchini Muffins with Crystalized Ginger
These muffins are inspired by one of Chef Leader-Zavos’ favorite uses for zucchini.
Dry ingredients
1½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ cup (55 g) candied or crystalized ginger, finely chopped
Wet ingredients
½ cup (1 cube) butter
½ cup (100 g) brown sugar (I know; it’s weird, but sugar is often considered a wet ingredient in baking. When you see how easily it dissolves into solution, this will make more sense.)
½ cup (100 g) white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1½ cups partially peeled, shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini, maybe 8 inches long) – leaving a little zucchini skin gives the finished muffins a few flecks of green
Brown Butter Zucchini Muffins with Crystallized Ginger. Photo by John Fladd.
Preheat your oven to 425°F, and line nine muffin cups with paper liners. Grease the top of the muffin tin, so when the muffin blooms over the top, it won’t get trapped in a dead-end relationship with the muffin tin.
Brown your butter, which is a lot simpler than it sounds. Unwrap a cube of butter, and put it in a small saucepan, then cook it over low or medium-low heat. First it will melt, then it will spit a little as the last of the water cooks out. Swirl the saucepan a little to stir the butter. If it ever seems like things are moving too quickly, just lift the pan off the heat for a few seconds. When the butter starts to foam, you are getting close. Swirl and lift, swirl and lift, until the butter has darkened to a golden brown color. Remove the pan from the heat, and let it cool. It will darken a little more, even after you’ve taken it off the stove. That’s normal. Don’t worry; you didn’t make a mistake.
Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir everything to combine, making sure that all the ginger pieces get coated with flour; this will keep them from clumping together or sinking to the bottom of each muffin.
Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and stir to combine. Make sure the brown butter has cooled enough that it won’t cook the egg.
Pour the contents of one bowl into the other, then stir to combine. Spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups, filling them to the top. Unlike cupcakes, you want these to expand into a bigger-on-top mushroom shape. Bake at 425°F for five minutes, then drop the heat to 350°F, and bake for another 13 to 15 minutes. When the muffins look like muffins and a toothpick comes out clean, remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes, before gently twisting them and removing them from the muffin tin.
These are outstanding muffins. They taste a little butterscotchy from the brown butter and brown sugar, and the coarse salt and candied ginger give little pops of flavor. The zucchini keeps everything beautifully moist. These may be the ultimate book club muffins.
2. Something smoky
Sarasin-Grilled Zucchini
Sarasin-Grilled Zucchini. Photo by John Fladd.
I grew up not liking zucchini very much and have retained a certain amount of zucchini dread into my adulthood.
Keith Sarasin, Chef and operator of Farmer’s Table, Aatma, and Aatma Curry House (keithsarasin.com), thinks exposure therapy is a good way to get over that.
“Zucchini is one of those wonderful, super versatile and abundant things that we get in the Northeast,” he said. “And honestly, it actually has a lot more purpose than just kind of that dish that maybe a family member made that you kind of just went ‘Meh’ with.”
He advised really embracing the zucchini’s essential zucchininess, by cooking it on the grill.
“It’s one of the simplest ways that people can use zucchini, and I guarantee everyone’s going to like it,” he said confidently.
Several small to medium-sized zucchini, 6 to 8 inches long
Approximately ½ cup olive oil
4 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Coarse salt and freshly shaved or ground Parmesan cheese for garnish
In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and the garlic over low heat for half an hour or more, to let the garlic thoroughly infuse the oil.
Chef Sarasin said to cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, then cut shallow cross-hatching across the flesh of each zucchini.
“Cross-hatching sounds fancy, but all you’re doing is you’re making shallow diagonal cuts on one side, and then you’re going on the other side to make a diamond pattern,” he said. “You don’t want to cut all the way through the zucchini; you really want to cut about a quarter inch tops down, really more like an eighth of an inch.” A good way to do this is with a utility knife with the blade extended to the first, shallowest setting.
Brush the face of the zucchini liberally with garlic oil, then cook face-down on the grill. (If you have a gas grill, you’re shooting for somewhere around 350°F.) Grill the zucchini for four minutes or so, then flip them over to see how seared and caramelized they are. If they need a little more time, brush them with more garlic oil, then flip them back over.
With your tongs or a fork, squeeze or poke the backs of each zucchini. If the cut faces are cooked enough but the back side still feels a little too firm, flip them on their backs and cook for another two to three minutes.
Take the zucchini back inside, and scoop them out of their skins before serving. Chef Sarasin suggested topping them with coarse salt and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. “It’s just a wonderful smoky addition [to your plate],” he said. “You’re getting smoky and sweet and savory all at the same time. It’s just a wonderful way to use zucchini.”
He’s right.
3. Something sippable
Zucchini-tini
Zucchini-Tini. Photo by John Fladd.
You will need to make zucchini water for this recipe:
Wash and then cut two or three unpeeled medium-sized zucchini into chunks, then blitz them in your blender until they look like slightly wet hot dog relish. Drape a tea towel over a mixing bowl or a large measuring cup, then pour the contents of the blender onto the towel. Twist and squeeze the towel-wrapped zucchini, until you have enough zucchini water (which just sounds better than “zucchini juice”) to use for a round of cocktails.
Using zucchini in a cocktail seems like a bit of a stretch, but it’s not unprecedented. Search the internet for “zucchini cocktail” and you will find a surprising number of recipes, some from reputable sources. This particular drink uses zucchini water for a jade green color and a subtle vegetal background flavor. Vodka allows that to assert itself without covering it with botanical flavors.
2 ounces skull-shrinkingly cold vodka from the freezer
2 ounces zucchini water (see above)
½ ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ ounces orgeat (almond syrup)
Pour all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake ruthlessly for a minute or so, until you hear the ice breaking up inside. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Sip while listening to Oscar Peterson. His music, some of the best piano jazz ever recorded, doesn’t have any immediate connection to zucchini, but more people should listen to Oscar Peterson.
The first thing you’ll notice about this cocktail is its vibrant green color. The next thing will be the interplay between the ingredients.The lemon tries to take over as the dominant flavor, but the zucchini makes itself known. It gives a green, slightly bitter quality, which is balanced out by the almond syrup. This is a good answer to that friend who is always bragging about their juice fast.
4. Something spicy
Zucchini Salsa
Zucchini Salsa. Photo by John Fladd.
A good salsa is a surprisingly delicate dance. Acidic tomatoes play off chiles of varying intensity. Even more acidic lime juice keeps chopped onion from being too assertive. Throw a salsa together thoughtlessly, and it will be out of balance. Overthink it, and you’ll end up with a muddled flavor profile that doesn’t really taste of anything in particular. And that’s before we even get into the controversial topic of cilantro.
Where even good, thoughtful salsas fall down a lot of the time is on the texture front; they are missing a crunchy element. Zucchini brings a crunchiness, color and a green flavor to this salsa, which is inspired by a recipe from food-blogger Nikki Dinki.
2 ripe tomatoes, cored and peeled
Half of a medium zucchini (about 130 g), peeled and diced
¼ of a red onion (about 60 g), finely chopped
A large handful of cilantro leaves and tender stems, finely chopped (see below)
¼ cup (about 5 g) fresh mint leaves, minced
The juice of one lime (about 40 g)
¾ teaspoon coarse salt
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup (about 75 g) pickled jalapeño slices, chopped
Mix all ingredients together in a nonreactive bowl, and stir to combine. Cover and let the salsa ingredients get to know each other.
This is a solid, dependable salsa. The ingredients all complement each other, and the zucchini provides just enough crunch. If the crunchiness is a little too pronounced, next time, chop it finer.
If you are making this salsa for someone who hates cilantro, try subbing it out with a quarter cup of minced basil. Basil goes well with mint and has a passionate romance with tomatoes. It’s not traditional, but it’s just as good on a taco.
5. Something savory
Zucchini and Feta Pancakes
These are a sort of a cross between vegetable fritters and egg foo yung. With a salad, they make a good lunch, or a pre-workout meal that won’t weigh you down.
Pancakes:
2½ cups partially peeled and shredded zucchini (1 to 1½ medium zucchini) – I like to leave a few stripes of peel, to add a little color and texture to the finished pancakes
½ (about 75 g) red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ cup (25 g) fresh dill, chopped
8 ounces (225 g) feta cheese, crumbled
1 bunch (4 or 5) scallions, chopped
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup (60 g) all-purpose or rice flour
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
½ cup vegetable oil for frying
Zucchini and Feta Pancakes. Photo by John Fladd.
Mix everything together in a large bowl.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, until it shimmers slightly. Spoon ¼ to ⅓ cup of the batter into the hot oil for each pancake, and pat it flat with the back of a spoon. Don’t overcrowd the skillet. Cook for two or three minutes on each side, and drain on paper towels. Serve with dipping sauce on the side.
Dipping Sauce:
Tangy mayonnaise – Cains or Duke’s
Vietnamese chili-garlic paste – I like the Huy Fong brand. You can find it at an Asian grocery store or online, but surprisingly more and more mainstream supermarkets carry it.
Mix the mayo and chili paste together in a roughly 2-to-1 ratio. Adjust for personal taste.
These pancakes are tender and herby, with just a little bit of crunch from the vegetables. The hint of sesame oil gives them a savory background flavor, which goes really well with the dipping sauce. The moisture from the zucchini keeps the pancakes from ever getting crisp, but they are excellent the next day, heated in an air fryer.
6. Something CHOCOLATY
Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake
As Addie Leader-Zavos pointed out, baked goods generally use zucchini to slowly release water during the baking process to keep the finished product moist. This extremely fudgy cake, which I adapted to a bundt cake from a King Arthur Baking recipe, is very moist. In addition, the traditional espresso powder normally used to brighten dark chocolate cakes has been replaced with cayenne pepper — just enough to remind everyone who eats the cake who they are dealing with.
8 ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup (99 g) vegetable oil
1¾ cup (347 g) brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon coarse salt
2 eggs
½ cup (113 g) sour cream
¾ cup (64 g) unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting the Bundt pan
2½ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups (about 2 medium) peeled and shredded zucchini
½ cup (85 g) chopped dark chocolate
Preheat your oven to 325°F.
Prepare your Bundt pan by buttering it thoroughly, then sifting cocoa powder into it. Make sure the entire surface of the inside of the pan is coated. If there are any spots where the cocoa didn’t stick, rub a little more butter on them, and coat with more cocoa powder.
Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake. Photo by John Fladd.
Using a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. When they have completely joined together, add the oil, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat the eggs in, one at a time.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and cayenne pepper. Spoon the flour blend into the mixer, alternating with the sour cream.
Stir the zucchini and chocolate chunks into the mixture by hand. Spoon the batter evenly into your prepared Bundt pan, then bonk it against the counter a couple of times to eliminate any air bubbles.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. You can test the cake’s doneness with a toothpick, but the depth of the Bundt pan and the moisture from the zucchini might make the toothpick test unreliable. If you have a probe thermometer, bake it until it has an internal temperature of 200°F. When it does, remove it from the oven and cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, before flipping it onto a plate. I find that when I do this I stand on my toes and bring the pan and plate down as sharply as possible. I like to cry out like I am completing a devastating martial arts move. Leave the cake to cool completely.
This is not a pretty-good-for-a-zucchini-cake cake. It is a really good cake — deeply chocolatey, with a subtle kick of cayenne. As per its brief, the zucchini has released its moisture during the baking process, then all but disappeared, leaving a moist, slightly decadent cake in its wake. This is excellent served warm, with vanilla ice cream, or cold, with slightly sweetened sour cream.
7. Something fried & baked
Zucchini Parmesan
Several medium-sized zucchini (8 inches or so), peeled
1 5.5-ounce (158 g) can of Pizza Flavored Pringles
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
½ cup (60 g or so) all-purpose or rice flour for dredging
5-6 slices provolone cheese
Jarred marinara sauce – I like Bove’s
Another ¼ cup of grated Parmesan
1 8-ounce bag (about 2 cups) of shredded mozzarella cheese
½ cup vegetable oil for frying
Zucchini Parmesan. Photo by John Fladd.
Cut the zucchini lengthwise into thin slices — no more than ¼ inch thick. Salt the slices, and leave them to drain on paper towels for half an hour or so. Rinse the salt off, and pat them dry.
Pulverize the Pringles in your blender or food processor, mix with ¼ cup of Parmesan, and pour into a shallow dish. Beat the eggs thoroughly and pour into another shallow dish. Pour the flour into yet another shallow dish. Leftover frozen dinner containers work really well for this.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, until it shimmers.
Flour and coat four or five slices of zucchini. Dredge each slice in flour, so it has two completely dry surfaces. Eggs don’t stick well to anything damp, so the flour will prepare the zucchini slices for the next step, which is to coat each side with beaten egg. The egg is feeling very good about itself at this point and would like to stick to something else dry and powdery — in this case, the Pringles-Parmesan mixture.
Fry four or five coated zucchini slices in the hot oil, turning after a minute or two. Do not be alarmed if they start looking like trout filets. As each zucchini slice finishes cooking, remove it to drain on paper towels. Keep dredging, frying and draining, until all the zucchini has been cooked.
Spoon enough marinara into a 9”-by-9” baking dish to coat the bottom. Place a layer of fried zucchini on top of it. Spoon enough marinara to cover each slice, but don’t drown them. Cover the sauced zucchini with slices of provolone. Place the rest of the zucchini in a second layer and cover with more sauce. Sprinkle the other ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese over the top, followed by the entire bag of shredded mozzarella.
Bake at 325°F for half an hour, or until the mozzarella layer has completely melted and is just starting to look a little toasty. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Like all good Parmesans, this is very cheesy, with just a bit of crispness mixed through it from the coating on the fried zucchini slices. While fairly neutral in flavor, the zucchini stays firmer than eggplant, which can sometimes dissolve into mush. The flavor from the fried Pringles lies in the background but deepens the overall taste of the dish. The zestiness of the tomato sauce plays off the three types of cheese. It is just saucy enough, without being soupy. This would be a good second-date dish.
8. Something like pasta
Zucchini Noodles with Chickpeas and Pistachio Pesto
Many of us have a spiralizer in the back of a kitchen drawer or cabinet that we bought in a fit of optimism a few years ago when we heard that you can make noodles out of vegetables that taste like the real thing. Like many promises in our youth, this one turned out to be an empty one; a carrot still tastes like a carrot, no matter what its shape. The same is true for zucchini. That doesn’t mean that zucchini noodles don’t taste good; it just means that they will never taste like linguini. Cooked just until slightly tender, and sauced thoughtfully, they can be very nice, indeed.
1 medium zucchini, half peeled – again, I like to have a few specks of green in the final dish
½ can (140 g) chickpeas, rinsed and drained.
3 Tablespoons pistachio pesto (see below)
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil for frying
Shredded Parmesan cheese and more pistachios for garnish
Olive oil for drizzle
Pesto:
2 packed cups (45 g) pesto leaves
½ teaspoon coarse salt
¼ cup (35 g) roasted, salted pistachios
½ cup (106 g) extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup (60 g) grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
Zucchini Noodles with Chickpeas and Pistachio Pesto. Photo by John Fladd.
In your blender or food processor, blitz the above ingredients into a mostly smooth paste. If you have a Magic Bullet or another small blender for making smoothies, it will be just the right size for this.
Use your spiralizer to turn the zucchini into noodles. If you only make vegetable noodles once in a while, an inexpensive, hand-held model will be fine.
Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until it shimmers.
Fry the chickpeas until they brown slightly. Do not be alarmed when they start popping like popcorn. If it freaks you out, cover the pan with its lid. Just don’t forget to check up on the chickpeas every 20 seconds or so. Add the 3 tablespoons of pesto, stir everything together, and let it cook for another two minutes or so.
Add the “zoodles” to the pan and cook them for another two minutes or so, stirring constantly. Do not overcook them or they will turn mushy. They should be tender but with a little bit of crunch left in them.
Serve immediately, topped with more pistachios and Parmesan cheese, and drizzled with a little more olive oil. Chopsticks work well with this dish.
The pesto and the noodles play equal roles in this dish. The pesto has a more dynamic flavor, but the noodles provide just a little crunch and a subtle vegetable taste. Depending on your personal preference, you might want to cut the noodles to a shorter length before cooking them. It turns out that a spiralizer can turn a zucchini into shockingly long noodles, but that can be useful for recreating the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp.
