Sunday, August 21, 2005

Roasted Zucchini with Feta Cheese

ZucchiniFeta
When I was flat on my back, many times I though of all the vegetables I had languishing in my fridge. That Saturday, I had purchased quite a good quantity of beautiful fresh vegetables at the Parkdale Farmer's Market. Little did I know I would not have much time to dedicate to them. Some, sadly, got lost. But since the vegetables had been picked that very morning the day I bought them, some lasted what I consider an unusual long time. Like the zucchini and green onions above.

As soon as I was able to stay on my feet for more than fifteen minutes I decided to try Lex Culinaria's recipe of Feta and Dill Baked Mushrooms. I even had in the fridge 2 punnets (16 oz) of regular button mushrooms, and figured that half her recipe would be enough for one or two complete meals for me. Who was I kidding? I ate the whole hog for supper. But man, are they good mushrooms!

MushroomsFeta

I am not going to reproduce the recipe here since I followed hers not to a capital "T" but at least to a small "t". I did not add dill because I had forgotten to purchase it and I did forget to add the lemon juice, even though I had lemons at home. Only when the mushrooms were half-baked did I come to the desk to check the recipe on the computer and noticed the lemon juice. Honestly, I did not miss it.

Four days later, feeling a little better, I decided to do something with the yellow and green zucchini's I had purchased. They were still firm but I was afraid would not be like that for too long. In the fridge I also had 2 bunches of green onions. The green leaves were going but the white portion was firm and good. Those mushrooms were still fresh in my mind so I decided to use the same recipe for the zucchini and green onions. Again, I did not use either lemon juice or dill. Why mess with perfection? Unfortunately I did have about 1 cup of feta cheese left. For the quantity of vegetables it would have been better to use about one-and-a-half cups of feta. I have added the right amount in the recipe below.

Roasted Zucchini with Green Onions and Feta Cheese

4 medium green zucchini
2 yellow green zucchini
2 bunches green onions
6 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons sea-salt, or more to taste
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups feta cheese, crumbled

Wash and cut zucchinis in the middle and then each piece into four lenghtwise. Clean the green onions and slice into about 1/2-inch slices. Put into a square pan.

In a mortar mash peeled garlic and salt until all the cloves are roughly mashed. Add the olive oil and mix well. Drop the oil mixture over the vegetables and mix well with a wooden spoon until it covers all the vegetables. Por over the crumbled feta cheese.

Put the pan into a 350F oven and bake, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Mix the vegetable-cheese mixture once or twice while it is baking.

Enjoy.

7 comments:

Ruth Daniels said...

Glad to see you back. I always enjoy visiting.

Stay well.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you back- hope you are feeling very much better. Your supper looks tasty.
I too have been eating zucchini. I tried the
redfox version (www.stuttercut.org/hungry/archives/recipes/
000621.php#000621) and it was also good.
It is that time of year when you cannot have too many zucchini ideas.

Ana said...

Thanks Ruth and Amy. It is so nice to be able to move almost like before.

Lindy, the farmers markets have tons of both yellow and green zucchini's and they look gorgeous. Next year, I want to plant the round zucchinis, the ones that look like a little pumpkin. Clotilde made a recipe with them which has been on mind ever since, but I find that these strange shape vegetables are hard to come by.

Joycelyn said...

hi ana, glad you're up and cooking - that looks really delicious...thanks for being so inspiring, as always...cheers,j

Kalyn Denny said...

Hi Ana,
I made the roasted zucchini and it turned out fantastic. Thanks again for letting me share it on my own blog. Hope you are feeling better. By the way, I have a 1912 bungalow in the middle of Salt Lake City, Utah, which I completely gutted and renovated. I was lucky enough to have a brother-in-law who was a contractor who did the work for me. Painting is about the extent of my renovating skills. Good luck with your house project. Just keep repeating, "It will be worth it" over and over.
Kalyn

Ana said...

J: Thanks for the kind words

Kalyn: I'm glad you liked the roasted zucchini. Would love to see your 1912 bungalow. Have any before and after pictures? I try to keep in my minds eye a picture of what my house will look like when finished but sometimes I wish I had a magic wand and have it done overnight. Anyway, I keep telling myself that I will like it more this way!!!

Anonymous said...

Anna,

I'm so glad you're feeling better! Your zucchini looks amazing, so much so, that I think the big yellow one I have in the fridge might meet a similar fate.