Zucchini Panzanella

Remember that zucchini that cropped up while I was on vacation? Well its starting to look like it might be the only one my Jurassic size plants create. And since it was enormous, I figured it deserved a place in the center of dinner, maybe to honor it in front of the garden gods so that they might give me one more zucchini.


Panzanella is a fabulous dish for when its too hot to eat, cook, or live in general. If you are like me, and lighting the grill and standing over it when its ninety degrees seems unappealing, you can use a grill pan and stand in your underwear in the kitchen.

For this version, I grilled cherry tomatoes until just blistered and corn on the cob until it looked - and smelled- really roasted, because my grill pan is teeny I  sauteed the zucchini with a sweet white onion but if you have the space I encourage you to grill all the vegetables.

I used a whole wheat rosemary bread bought at the farmers market, and toasted the cubes under the broiler. In this heat I sometimes just eat popsicles for dinner, so I'm willing to call this a win, even if its not really grilled the way I like it.


I dressed this with homemade raspberry vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper and a shallot all whizzed up in the blender. This is a substitution friendly sort of a dinner salad, so feel free to use whats on hand, if you have no zucchini, use another squash, or make it a little more fresh with a cucumber.


Quasi Grilled Panzanella
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 ears of corn, shucked and cleaned
1 loaf of rosemary bread
1 mammoth sized (or 2 small) zucchini
1 small sweet white onion
Raspberry Vinaigrette

Heat your grill to high, and place on the tomatoes and the ears of corn whole, turning occasionally to give an even char. * Once they reach your desired level of doneness, remove them from the grill and set them aside. To remove the kernels from the cob,I like to stand the ear of corn on the pillar in the center of a bundt pan and cut the corn off the cob with a sharp knife in a downward motion, just let the pan well collect all the roasted corn goodness. While you are grilling your vegetables, toast the cubes of bread and saute the onion and zucchini If you let this go as long as you grill the corn you should get a lovely caramelization on the onions. toss the ingredients together and serve warm with a drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette.

*Pay close attention to the tomatoes as they can explode in the heat, you want them just blistered, then you can remove them. Let the tomatoes cool while you prepare the rest of this salad, while cooking them deepens their flavor, because of their liquid insides they become finger and mouth scalding bombs when you cook them.

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Squash & Honey Pie

Yesterday in Boston, the air was steamy. Summer, it would seem was not quite ready to unclench its muggy grip from us. I love summer, barbecues and sunshine that lasts until 9pm? Who doesn't like it? But there is a romance, and a wistful quality to Autumn that I find irresistible. I was determined to make this Autumn, the first in our new home, not just my favorite season because of the impossibly blue sky and the chilly nights, but because of the warm home and - yes the delicious, seasonal food (this is a food blog, after all) With maybe the exception of spring asparagus, I think Autumn has the strongest, most wide reaching grip on seasonal food. When the nights dip low into the fifties, and the maples burn red, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone not thinking of apple cider, roast pork, and pumpkin...well, pumpkin anything, really...

To usher in the my favorite season, I decided I needed a pie. The quintessential sweet of fall, is of course, the pumpkin pie. But I wasn't quite ready for pumpkin. I had received some honey from my Aunt, direct from her hive of bees, that I wanted to incorporate it in to the filling as a sweetener. I wanted something a little different...something not so spicy, and more fresh tasting. (this is the beginning of the season, after all) Acorn squash was the answer I came to. Martha had even written a recipe I could use as a guideline. I was in business.

The recipe that you can find here, gave me a great jumping off point, (corn meal crust??? Yes!) but I didn't follow it. I wasn't about to make mini pies, lest I eat a whole one. Roasting these squash (which I did the night before, while roasting vegetables and fish for our dinner) gave them plenty of softness, and a depth of flavor I appreciate. The filling gets a kick from cinnamon and orange zest, as does the sweetened cornmeal crust. Pie crust is one of the rare moments in baking when I feel comfortable winging it. So I do. My squash were enormous, so I used two beastly sized specimens, If you don't have such prolific squash, use three smaller ones.

Acorn Squash & Honey Pie


For the Crust:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup stoneground cornmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter, dice into cubes and chill

1 egg yolk, mixed with about 1 tablespoon of ice water

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

more ice water as needed, added by the tablespoon.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl with the butter, using a fork (or your fingers!) until none of the lumps are larger than a pea. combine the egg and water with the zest and stir into the crumb mixture. Knead in the bowl until the dough is well incorporated and forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill until its time to roll out the dough.

For the Filling:

2 large acorn squash, (or three small ones)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon orange zest

4 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup honey

egg wash

To Create the Pie:


Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides (set some seds aside to dry on a paper towel, if you are anything like the man). In a 375 degree oven, roast the squash until its fork tender, (my large squash took almost one hour, but smaller ones should take about 40 minutes.) Let the squash cool to the touch, then scrape the orange fruit from the skin (an ice cream spade worked especially well for me) and whip in the large bowl of a mixer until smooth. Add spices and zest. whip some more. Add eggs, milk, and honey. mixing to thoroughly combined. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out your chilled dough to about 1/8" thick. I like to do mine on a flexible cutting board, then flip it over into the pie pan. Brush the inside of the pie dough with egg wash.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. pour the filling into the crust and bake for 35 minutes, or until the middle of your pie is just barely set, The heat it carries over will finish it for you.

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