EEE Cooks: Fried Whole Zucchini (Recipe)

Fried Whole Zucchini

We picked up a small container of baby zucchini (many with their flowers attached) at the Farmers’ market. We coat the whole zucchini with breadcrumbs and cheese and pan-fry them until crisp and tender. Served with a quick tomato sauce, a vegetable side moves to center plate!

Servings and Times

Serves: 3

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients

15 small Farmers' market, whole, with flowers attached zucchini

½ cup all-purpose flour

salt & pepper

1 large egg

salt & pepper

1 clove garlic

½ cup plain, dried, store-bought breadcrumbs

¼ teaspoon dried basil

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1½ tablespoons Pecorino romano cheese (Locatelli)

extra-virgin olive oil

1 batch homemade tomato sauce

We start by cleaning the zucchini, being careful to leave the flowers intact.

We use “standard breading procedure” to coat the zucchini. We get three bowls ready for the breading. In one bowl we put the flour and some salt and pepper. In another bowl we mix the egg with a tablespoon of water. The garlic clove is peeled and smashed and added to the egg mixture. In a third bowl we mix the bread crumbs with the basil, garlic powder, pepper, and Locatelli.

Each zucchini is placed into the seasoned flour. Then, each is dipped in the egg wash, and finally coated with bread crumbs. We place the breaded zucchini on a wax-paper lined dinner plate as we continue with the remaining zucchini. We keep the zucchini in a single layer on the plate.

In our Dutch oven, we heat some of the olive oil—we want it to just coat the pan about ¼ inch. When hot, we add some of the zucchini (not to crowd the pan) and pan-fry on medium heat. We do this for a couple of minutes. We turn the pieces over with tongs when they are nicely browned, and cook for another couple of minutes. When browned and cooked through, we drain on paper towels and sprinkle lightly with salt. We add a little more olive oil to the Dutch oven, and continue with the rest of the zucchini.

Meanwhile, we heat up the tomato sauce.

The fried zucchini are served with the sauce. Yum!

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