A Garden Glut

When I was growing up, in the countryside of western Marin County, we had a large garden. I remember cherry tomatoes we picked off the plant and popped into our mouths, bursting sweet and warm from the sun. There were asparagus plants that went to seed faster than we could eat them, and a towering thicket of corn stalks in which my brother and I loved to play hide and seek. And then there were the zucchini.

I can’t remember if there was one zucchini plant or many, but—as is the case with many gardeners—we had a glut of zucchini each summer. Zucchini are prolific plants, with one vine capable of producing many squash. What I love about garden-grown zucchini is that they are often huge. None of those polite, uniformly sized squash you find in the grocery store. Garden zucchini can be outrageous, massive, Amazonian! I’ve seen zucchini that are the size and weight of a newborn baby. Now that’s a zucchini.

Two weeks ago I opened my CSA box and found, amongst my delivery of farm fresh produce, a huge zucchini. It reminded me of the zucchini of my childhood, the ones we picked from the vine, warm from the sun and so large they just begged to be stuffed. Because that’s what you do with huge, garden-grown zucchini. You carve them into boats and stuff them. And they are delicious.



STUFFED ZUCCHINI (or other summer squash)
This is a dish I threw together to take advantage of the giant zucchini in my CSA box. I hadn’t planned to blog about it, but it turned out so delicious that I just had to share. I’ve since made it again, to stuff two smaller zucchini and some round globe squash that were in my CSA box the following week. It could be used for nearly any summer squash. As I do have a zucchini plant in the garden this summer (“you only need one,” my mother warned), I am looking forward to many more summer dinners of stuffed zucchini. It’s the most delicious way I’ve found to deal with the summer zucchini glut; it’s so good you might be tempted to go out and create a glut for yourself.

1 very large, or 2 medium zucchini (can also be made with other summer squash)
1 cup couscous cooked in chicken or vegetable stock (1/2 cup dry couscous cooked in 1 1/2 cup stock)
1 tsp olive oil, plus more for oiling the baking pan
1/2 onion, chopped in a medium small dice
2 cloves crushed garlic
4 tbs pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan
2 oz (a little over 1/3 cup) crumbled feta cheese
1 tbs fresh thyme leaves, stripped from the stem and roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 350°. Cut the zucchini down the middle lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the flesh of the zucchini, leaving 1/4 inch shell. Coarsely chop the zucchini flesh. Sauté the onion and garlic in oil until limp and add the chopped zucchini flesh. Continue sautéing until the mixture is soft and fully cooked. Add the couscous, pine nuts, thyme (reserve a pinch to sprinkle on top), and feta, mixing well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use this mixture to fill the zucchini (serve any leftover filling alongside the squash, if you don’t gobble it up out of the pan first.). Sprinkle remaining thyme on top and place squash on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake at 350° until the zucchini is fully cooked and soft (25-55 minutes, depending on the size of the squash). The stuffing will get slightly brown on top. Turn down heat or remove to a lower oven rack if filling begins to get too brown or crunchy. Serves two as a generous side dish.



Take a look at all the tiny squash-to-be clustered around the center. I've already harvested two zucchini off this plant, with many more to come.

PS. For another take on stuffed zucchini—from another inspired blogging CSA member—check out Tschoerda in Austria.