Give your zucchini some flavor...

Tonight, we decided to look to our garden for some inspiration. We knew that spaghetti w/tomato sauce and Italian sausage was on the menu, but we wanted to incorporate some good veggies from the garden since it's getting close to veggie harvest time in Manitoba, even if it's late this year from all the rain and lack of sun.

We seemed to have a plethora of zucchini, but not much else that was ready. There was one pathetic tomato that was dying to be picked out of the depressing looking tomato plant where it hung, so we grabbed it up. We picked all the zucchini that was getting big and on the way back to the house, I snagged some basil.

While cooking the Italian sausage on the barbecue, an idea lit up. Since I've personally never seen this done, I'm gonna name this "Frenchy's Grilled Zucchini". Yes it's a lame ass name, but I'll leave it up to readers to determine the real name. And I write:

Ingredients:
1 large zucchini (3" or more circumference)
ball mozzarella cheese
shredded parmesan cheese
olive oil
kosher or coarse salt
cracked pepper
firm tomato
fresh basil leaves

Directions:
Slice the zucchini approximately 3/4 - 1 inch thick in rounds. Set the larger rounds on a plate, then brush will olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Place on a hot BBQ grill (cast iron pan would also work). Pay close attention to how the zucchini is cooking on the grill. you don't want them to get soggy. A good way to check is use tongs to flip them cause you can gauge the firmness of the zucchini by squeezing the zucchini. You want them to feel moderately soft.

If you have a low heat BBQ like me, you can take some time while the zucchini is grilling to prep the remainder of the ingredients. Slice your tomato in half, then slice thin slices (these would be quartered slices) and set aside. Trim the stems off the basil leaves and then also set aside. Slice the ball mozzarella into 1/8" slices that will fit on the zucchini (see where i'm going? :) ). Shred some Parmesan cheese unless you have some pre-shredded and save yourself some work.

Head the to grill and flip the zucchini (if you haven't already). Place a slice of mozza on each zucchini round and then sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of each mozza slice. Allow to stay on the grill to melt the cheese. At this point it would be good to switch off the heat under the zucchini and change to the opposite side burner and use indirect heat.

Once the cheese is melted, remove the zucchini using a grill spatula and place on a plate. To finish off this zucchini, place a slice or two of tomato on the zucchini then put 2 leaves of basil on the tomato. Finally, crack some more pepper on top and then finish with a sprinkle of coarse or kosher salt. This has a ton of flavour and is a great way to use garden fresh zucchini.

Cheers!