Crocktober: Crock Pot Zucchini Boats with White Bean, Swiss, Tomato and Herb Stuffing

I hear tell of fabled round zucchinis that one can buy at certain places, but since I was unable to find the round variety I just hollowed out your average medium-size zucchini and made a stuffing with white beans, tomato, and parsley. The advantage of using your typical zucchini is that if you cut these into smallish pieces, they would made super cute appetizers.

I don't know what my fascination lately is with stuffing food into other food. Maybe it's just that it's fun to do, cute to look at, or simply convenient. Whatever the motivation may be, stuffing food into other food works marvelously well in the crock pot. Also I (obviously) enjoy crocking things that most people might not think were crockable. This dish cooks much faster than your all-day crock-potters - about 3 hours on low - so it might be better suited as a weekend meal. Of course, like most crock pot recipes, you could also make this in the oven, but that would not be in keeping with the Crocktober theme and therefore I could not tell you about it until potentially much, much later. So I made in a crock pot, and so should you.

This recipe will be easier if you are using a larger crock than my 2-quarter, just in terms of surface area. If you have a bigger one, use that. I stacked mine, which was okay too.

 Obviously a can of beans, plus tomato and onion and pine nuts and all of this can't fit in the shell of one zucchini, but the leftover payout of this recipe - or really, the stuffing that doesn't fit - is a yummy bean salad. Things could be worse. But if you're not into that, I'd halve the stuffing recipe. And if you're making these to be cut up as appetizers, I'd cut down the bean-to-other-stuff ratio, upping the veggies and herbs. If you're serving them this way you might skip the cooking altogether, since of course cooking makes the shells softer.

Ingredients:

I zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise, scooped out to leave about a 1/4 inch shell

1 tomato, chopped and seeded

1 15.5 oz. can white beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained (I literally used "white beans," but you could use cannellini beans or chickpeas, roughly chopped since they're big)

2 tablespoons fresh parsley or basil, finely chopped, packed (I used parsley)

2 tablespoons onion, minced

1 (small) clove garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese (optional)

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted (about 2 oz.)

Salt and pepper

Nonstick cooking spray

Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Olive oil

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine tomato, beans, onion, pine nuts, parsley, about a tablespoon of olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper, and Swiss cheese, if you're using it.

2. Spray or lightly oil your crock pot insert. Be sure that your zucchini will fit in the crock. If the boats need to be shortened, it is much simpler to do so at this point than to do it after stuffing.
3. Spoon stuffing into the zucchini "boats," packing slightly, and rest them inside the crock. Cook on low for 2-3 hours.

4. Carefully remove from crock and serve. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar if desired.

A note about hollowing out the squash: It may seem like the best way to do this is to just take a spoon and scoop straight down the length of it, but it seems to me that there's a more effective way that is less likely to lead to dreaded Squash Breakage. Take a large spoon - like a soup spoon, not like a "Little Dipper" spoon - and take off just a thin strip from all the way down the pulpy section. Then, using the same spoon or a teaspoon, position the scooper parallel to the edge of the "boat" and scoop starting at the edge and moving toward the center. You can smooth it out afterward, but trying to take it all out at once will probably not work out very well.

Making this stuffing would have been a lot faster if I had my food processor here rather than in Western Massachusetts. If you've got one, mince the garlic and onion with the parsley, salt and pepper and oil, then add the tomato (halved and guts scooped out), and finally the nuts and beans, which you can chop or not chop.

About 2 hours in, I realized that these were not as cheesy as I would have liked, so I sprinkled more on top to melt in the remaining cooking time, which worked out fine. Obviously it didn't take a whole hour for the cheese to melt, so you could do this at the last minute if you wanted to. It's not pictured, but I did end up adding Balsamic, which I think was a good call.

These were tasty! Just the right amount of richness, with the Swiss cheese and pine nuts, and very satisfying. Next spring and summer I think I'll be making the no-cook version on the regular.

Quote of the Day: Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of life. ~ Cyril Connolly

Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Fried Sage Leaves & Toasted Pine Nuts

With the heat index reaching 115 yesterday and nearly as night today, the heat wave rages on in Philly and across much of the eastern United States. I will admit that last night we ordered out - vegetarian Stromboli, yum! and yes, we tipped well for the trouble - so tonight I was determined to actually cook something. That is, as long as this "cooking" did not involve my oven, and bonus points if it didn't involve the stove either. Since the sage leaves fry up super fast, I consider this a success. In a perfect (late autumn) world I would cook the squash in the oven until perfectly tender. But that wasn't happening today. I know some chefs like to hate on the microwave, but I think it's a fantastic invention. Tonight it saved me from 1) Chinese takeout and 2) certain death by apartment-overheating.

This recipe is from Serious Eats. I upped the sage slightly, but you can definitely stick to the original 6-8 leaves if you want to:

Ingredients:

1 small spaghetti squash, about 2 lbs

6-10 fresh sage leaves
1 clove garlic, mashed

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Directions:

1. If you are microwaving your squash, cut it in half lengthwise. Place cut-side-down in a microwave safe dish, and add an inch or two of water, or enough to "seal" the opening of the squash. Microwave on high for about 10-12 minutes or until the squash is softened and its flesh can easily be combed out with a fork.

2. While the squash is cooking, pour a little olive oil in a frying pan and fry the save leaves until crispy, but not brown. When done, crumble them into a large bowl, adding the ricotta, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.

3. When the squash is done, comb flesh into the large bowl. Combine with cheese and sage leaves, transfer to plate or serving platter, and top with toasted pine nuts. I also drizzled a little extra olive oil over it just before serving.

Cook's Note: For more info on toasting nuts, check out my post on pesto-making.

Super simple spinach salad makes a great complement to this dish.

Truthfully, Brady didn't care for this, and I can't really understand why. But like with most things, it all comes down to taste. To me it was a bold, delicious combination of flavors, perfectly just-rich-enough and not too heavy.

Obviously this dish would make more sense in true squash season (I'm a few months ahead of the curve, yadda yadda) but I'm getting just the tiniest bit tired of salads, aren't you?

Quote of the Day: You know, when you get your first asparagus, or your first acorn squash, or your first really good tomato of the season, those are the moments that define the cook's year. I get more excited by that than anything else. ~ Mario Batali

Adventures in Pesto-Making

Despite all the Italian food I ate growing up, pesto seems to have largely passed me by. This is probably because my grandparents were Sicilian, and pesto originated in Genoa, in northern Italy. Still, because of my love for the stuff (and a great affinity for all fresh herbs, really) I thought I might as well give it a shot.

The first surprise in this process, the product of my internet research, is the idea that you really should blanch your basil before making your pesto. I know, it seems crazy to dip those fresh little leaves in boiling water to keep them from turning an icky brown, but that does seem to be the method. Another trick, which may be combined with the blanching or used in isolation, is to float a thin layer of olive oil over the pesto to protect it from the air, and thereby prevent basil oxidation. Knowing that Tuesday is a long day, on which I usually don't get home until 9:15 or so, I made the sauce last night. To my great relief, it was still lovely and green this evening.

The second surprise was - What? Why are pine nuts so expensive? I still don't have an answer to that, but now that I know that a little goes a long way, I am less distressed about it. They bring all the richness and velvety deliciousness to the sauce, so I can forgive them their hefty price tag.

The yield from this recipe doesn't look like much, but for us it was more than enough, so I would call it about three servings. If you want to get all old-timey, or if you just have anger issues, you can definitely use a mortar and pestle instead of a food processor. I recommend toasting your pine nuts first (see Cook's Note), and of course the pasta you will cook according to the package directions:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup fresh basil leaves, lightly packed plus another couple of leaves for serving

1 tablespoon pine nuts, lightly toasted plus a few for serving

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 clove of garlic

1/2 box of whole wheat spaghetti; about 7 oz.

Directions:

To blanch the basil - 

1. Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Bring a pot of water to a boil (large enough that a colander can fit inside).

2. Place basil leaves in boiling water and stir so that they blanch evenly. Leave in water for 15 seconds, then pull colander out and plunge basil into ice water to stop the cooking process.

3. Squeeze excess water from the basil and place in food processor.

To make the pesto:

1. Combine garlic, blanched basil, Parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil in a food processor and blend to a smooth paste, scraping down the sides as needed.

3. Toss with pasta, sprinkling a few toasted pine nuts and a freshly-torn basil leaf or two on top.

Cook's Note: Toast your pine nuts in a dry frying pan over medium-low heat. Stir frequently and keep a close eye on them, as they burn very easily. Remove from heat when fragrant and slightly golden in color.

I had some adorable baby leaves starting on my otherwise listless and garbage-bound basil plant, so I used those instead of tearing up the big, sad-looking ones. So cute, right?

Yum! Not only was this sauce delicious and easy to make, it is very fragrant and quite lovely to look at, too. If you are so inclined, you can add some fresh parsley along with the basil. The only caveat for this recipe is that if you are not a great lover of garlic, you might want to cut it down. Like, by half. Brady was too stuffed up to notice that I was loading him full of garlicky goodness (yay!) and I'm a big fan of the stuff, so we were both happy, but if your sinuses are functional and you are not a garlic-fiend, you could scale it down a bit.

This worked great as a make-ahead, and tonight took only as much time as it takes to cook the pasta. Once perfected with just the right amount of garlic to suit your taste, this will be a great classic dish to have in your repertoire.

Quote of the Day: Pounding fragrant things - particularly garlic, basil, parsley - is a tremendous antidote to depression. [...] Pounding these things produces an alteration in one's being - from sighing with fatigue to inhaling with pleasure. ~ Patience Gray