Marinated Summer Squash…with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers

Earlier this summer I had an unfortunate experience with a recipe for marinated summer squash.  I wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on during the cooking process…I think I was distracted...and I was just blindly following a recipe in an attempt to get dinner on the table quickly.  (It happens to us all!)  The result was mushy…and oily…and kind of awful.  Because this was early in the summer, I’ve had the whole growing season to be sort of peripherally obsessed with marinated summer squash.  I’ve noticed it whenever a recipe for it crossed my path (which—surprisingly—happened with some frequency), and I’ve made several variations now.

Early on I happened across a great basic recipe from The Canal House.  I love recipes like this—no-frills, “method” recipes that enhance your understanding of a process and can then be used as a foundation for all kinds of variations.  Once you have the method recipe for something in your repertoire, you then begin to see it being used within more elaborate recipes all the time…and even when the more elaborate recipe is poorly or obscurely written, if you like the dish that recipe is trying to convey, you can then use your knowledge of the basic method…and the idea presented in the new recipe…and produce something delicious to eat. 

The basic method for marinated squash is to cook large pieces of squash 

(grill, broil, roast, sauté in a skillet, etc.) until golden brown and just tender (should still have a bit of resistance in the center) 

and then dress it with a tangy, garlicky, herby dressing while still warm. 

Then, all you have to do is let the squash sit and marinate until it has cooled to room temperature.  At that point you can enjoy it right away…or the next day (or later).  It is good chilled, at room temperature, or reheated.  The trick for success is choosing small, tender squash

...and then being careful not to overcook it (no matter what size you end up with).

I have run across variations on this basic method ranging from simple to complex.  Bon Appétit had a recipe in June with hazelnuts and mint (served on a bed of ricotta).  Joshua McFadden in his book Six Seasons includes a recipe with cherry tomatoes and a complex vinaigrette made with capers, raisins, anchovies and loads of parsley.  For subtle crunch, he tops the whole dish with a shower of toasted breadcrumbs.  



Michael Solomonov (Zahav) spoons his marinated squash over a “charred zucchini baba ganoush” and tops it with feta and hazelnuts. In her book Fresh from the Farmers’ Market, Janet Fletcher makes her vinaigrette with tomato concassé, niçoise olives, and capers.

Marinated squash can be served as a side dish (it’s especially nice with fish, chicken and lamb), but that’s just the beginning.  As demonstrated by the Bon Appétit and Solomonov versions, it is perfect for serving on top of a smear of ricotta, hummus…or other favorite spread.  If you add a loaf of crusty bread…or some warm flatbread…you have dinner.   At my table, I have served this squash for dinner on top of a big mound of fresh corn polenta…and as a side to halibut and toasted pine nut couscous.  

And I have enjoyed it for lunch with a custardy, soft cooked egg and a mound of warm freekeh.  

My favorite version is a hybrid of several of the recipes mentioned above (and it’s the one I’m including in my post).  Once you make it, I imagine you will come up with your own variations…and find a myriad of ways in which to serve it.

Marinated Summer Squash with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, & Capers

1 lb. firm small summer squash (a mix of shapes and colors, if possible)

1 T. olive oil

Salt & pepper

2 T. red wine vinegar

1 large clove of garlic, peeled

1/2 lb. cherry tomatoes, halved (mixed colors, if available)

1 1/2 T. capers, rinsed and coarsely chopped

1/3 c. Kalamata (or other favorite brine-cured olive), halved

1/3 c. olive oil

10 to 12 large fresh basil leaves, cut in a medium chiffonnade

1/4 c. toasted breadcrumbs or toasted walnuts

Trim the squash.  For cylindrical squash, halve each squash lengthwise.  If the squash are on the large size (larger than 4 or 5 oz.), cut each in half again lengthwise.  Your goal is long slabs that are about 1/2-to 3/4-inch thick.  For patty pan-style squash, cut in half horizontally through the equator.  Again, if they are on the large side, you may want to cut these slices in half (to make semi-circles) or if the squash is extra tall, you may just want to cut it in 3 thick slices horizontally.  As with the zucchini, your goal is slabs that are 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick. 

Heat your grill or broiler to high.  Place the squash in a bowl and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil.  If you are broiling the squash, spread it on a baking sheet.  Slide the pan under the broiler or, alternatively, arrange the squash on the grill.  Grill or broil, turning occasionally, until both sides of the squash are lightly browned and just tender, but not mushy—there will still be a small amount of resistance in the center of the squash.  (Alternatively, you can simply brown the squash in a skillet on the stove top.  Film the pan with oil and cook over medium to medium-high heat, starting with a cut surface and then turning as the squash brown.)

While the squash cooks, place the vinegar in a large bowl.  Using a microplaner, grate the garlic into the bowl.  Add the tomatoes, olives, capers and olive oil.  Season generously with salt & pepper and toss to combine.

When the squash is tender, transfer to a wide, shallow dish and season with salt.  (If any of the squash is longer than 4 inches, then cut those in half first.) Pour the tomato salad over the squash and add the basil.  Gently toss everything together using a rubber spatula.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  

Let the squash sit for at least half an hour before serving, gently tossing the ingredients a time or two as they sit.  The squash may be gently warmed or served at room temperature.  To serve, transfer to a serving platter and shower with toasted bread crumbs or walnuts.  Serves 4.

Toasted Breadcrumbs:  Remove the crusts from a day old baguette or a few slices of artisanal style white bread.  Place in the food processor and process until bread is reduced a mixture of crumbs ranging from fine to pieces that are about the size of a pea.  Spread the crumbs in a small baking pan or pie plate and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil.  Toss to distribute the olive oil and moisten all of the crumbs.  Transfer to a 350° to 375° oven and bake, stirring at five minute intervals, until the crumbs are golden brown and crisp.  Let cool.  Toasted breadcrumbs may be stored for a few days at room temperature in an airtight container.   Freeze for longer storage.

Toasted Walnuts:  Spread the walnuts in a small baking dish and place in a 350° oven until golden and fragrant…about 5 minutes.  When cool enough to handle, crumble the walnuts with your hands.  Drizzle sparingly with olive oil and season with salt.

Printable Version

Pasta with a Creamy Yellow Bell Pepper & Tomato Sauce

Sometimes simplicity is deceptive....  Today's pasta sauce is a good example.  Other than its brilliant...almost neon...color, one might be tempted to pass it by as plain and boring...there just isn't much to see.  The few ingredients are cooked in a straightforward way and then puréed into a smooth and uniform sauce.  Visually, it could probably pass for baby food.  But when you put what turns out to be a rather silken textured sauce in your mouth, you find that it sings with the concentrated flavors of sweet ripe bell peppers and tangy summer tomatoes.   Furthermore, it has a pleasant but unobtrusive kick from a generous pinch of hot pepper flakes...as well as a few nice aromatic exclamation points from a handful of shards of sweet basil.  It is anything but boring...  The few ingredients surprise with their collective intensity of flavor.

I ran across the recipe for this pasta in one of my favorite pasta cookbooks—Four Seasons Pasta by Janet Fletcher.  There are a lot of pictures in this book, but not one for this recipe.  If there had been a picture, it is likely I would have passed it by.  But since I was scanning titles and ingredient lists (rather than browsing pictures) looking for a late summer recipe, I noticed this one.  I love the red and yellow bell peppers of late summer (the hot house ones available all year pale in comparison).  When I stopped to read the recipe, I was intrigued by its simplicity.  And because it really is different than the chunky, vegetable "sauces" that I gravitate towards this time of year, I decided to give it a try.  I was not disappointed. 

I have altered the original recipe in one respect:  I roasted the pepper instead of chopping it up and adding it raw with the tomatoes.  I did this first and foremost because the final sauce is puréed, but not strained.  I didn't really want bits of tough pepper skins floating around in my otherwise smooth sauce.  Roasting the pepper has the added advantage of concentrating the sweet pepper flavor.  Furthermore, puréed roasted peppers create a velvety smooth sauce.  There really isn't a downside to this change...unless you object to turning on your broiler (or grill).  To this I would say that you can roast the pepper ahead...when you already have your oven or your grill turned on for something else.  Or, if you really object, you could simply follow the original recipe:  Core and seed the pepper and cut it into a quarter-inch dice.  Add it to the pan with the tomatoes.  Cover and simmer until the peppers are tender...about 15 minutes...and purée as directed. 

This simple sauce is delicious on pasta, but I have already been thinking about other ways to use it.  I think it would be wonderful with fish (something hearty like swordfish...or tuna...).  And its simplicity makes it perfect for pooling on a plate and topping with some freshly cooked gnocchi (tossed with a little olive oil or butter) and some shaved Parmesan. 

Pepper and tomato season will easily extend through the end of September...so I plan on making this sauce a few more times before the season is through.  And since I'm certain this sauce will freeze well, I'll probably make an extra batch or two for the freezer.  I think its bright summery presence on the dinner table will be the perfect antidote to a gray and blustery autumn or winter day.

Pasta with a Creamy Yellow Bell Pepper & Tomato Sauce

(Penne Saporite "Il Frantoio")

1/3 c. olive oil, plus more for roasting the peppers

1 large yellow or orange bell pepper (about 8 to 9 oz.)

1 small red onion (about 6 oz.), finely diced

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

A generous pinch hot pepper flakes (to taste)

1 lb. vine ripened or plum tomatoes

Salt & freshly ground pepper

1 lb. penne rigate or fusilli

12 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

1/3 c. (1 oz.) finely grated pecorino, plus more for passing at the table

Preheat the broiler.  Rub the pepper with a bit of olive oil, place on a small baking sheet or the broiler pan and broil until the skins have blackened and begun to split—2 to 4 minutes on each side.  Cool.  Peel and seed the pepper over a sieve set over a small bowl to catch the flavorful juices.  Cut into an even dice and add to the juices.  Set aside.

While the pepper roasts, heat 1/3 cup of olive oil in a large skillet over moderately low heat.  Add the onion along with a pinch of salt and sweat until very soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the garlic and hot pepper flakes and cook briefly until the garlic is fragrant.

While the onion cooks, prepare the tomatoes.  Core the tomatoes.  If using plum tomatoes, halve them lengthwise.  If using vine ripes, halve them horizontally (through their equator).  Scoop out the seeds into a sieve set over a small bowl (to conserve the juices).  Discard the seeds.  Using a large-holed grater set on a plate or pie pan, grate the tomatoes by holding the cut side of the tomatoes against the grater and grating until just the skin remains in your palm.  Add the grated tomato pulp to the tomato juices. 

When the onions and garlic are ready, add the tomato pulp—along with a few good pinches of salt—and simmer gently until the sauce has thickened slightly (about 10 to 15 minutes). 

Add the peppers, cover and simmer gently to blend the flavors and finish softening the peppers—about 5 to 10 minutes more—and adding a splash of water if the sauce seems dry or tight.

  

Transfer the contents of the pan to the blender cup (either a traditional blender or an immersion blender) and purée until smooth, adding water in small increments if the sauce is too thick to move well in the blender (see note).  

Scrape the sauce back into the sauté pan and taste for salt & pepper.  Keep warm while you cook the pasta. 

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the pasta and cook until al dente.  Set aside 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta.  Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat—adding enough pasta water to create a fluid sauce that coats and clings to the noodles.  Add the basil and the cheese and toss to combine.  Add more pasta water if needed.   Serve immediately, passing cheese separately. 

Serves 4 to 6.

Notes:  

• I prefer to wait to purée the sauce until I'm cooking the pasta so I can use pasta water to thin the sauce in the blender (if necessary).
• This may seem like a very small amount of sauce...but it is really just perfect.  Pasta should be sauced so that there isn't a pool of sauce left on the plate when you are finished...rather, you should finish the last bite of pasta with the last bit of sauce.  That said, if you like more sauce, simply increase the recipe so that the pasta is sauced to your liking.

(Recipe adapted from Four Seasons Pasta—A Year of Inspired Recipes in the Italian Tradition, by Janet Fletcher)

Printable Recipe

What's in Season?...Asparagus

The featured vegetable on my "Twelve Months of Fresh Food" calendar for the month of April is asparagus.  

Like last month's featured food (arugula) I have done many posts that feature asparagus...it's probably my favorite spring vegetable.  I start buying it as soon as it begins to show up at the market sometime in late March and enjoy it several times a week until the season is over sometime in June.

At my house asparagus appears in pasta (of course), 

Alfredo Sauce with Asparagus & Spring Onions

soups, 

Cream of Asparagus Soup

tarts, 

Asparagus Tart

mixed vegetable ragouts,

Spring Vegetable Medley of Spring Onions, Artichokes, Asparagus & Peas

grain pilafs 

Bulgur Pilaf with Asparagus & Peas

and salads....

Composed Salad with Asparagus, Beets, Arugula and Egg Salad Crostini..

Even pizza.

Asparagus Pizza with Prosciutto and Three Cheeses

It is a perfect side vegetable--delicious dressed with nothing but butter (and a few herbs)

Salmon with Medley of Buttered Asparagus & Peas

 or olive oil. 

With a Mushroom & Potato Spanish Tortilla

And it has a special affinity for eggs.  

Asparagus, Walnut & Goat Cheese Salad topped with a Fried Egg

It is in this guise—as a simple accompaniment to scrambled eggs—that I wrote about it in a "basics" post a few years ago.  

In that post I went into detail about how to choose asparagus...how to store and clean it...and then shared my favorite cooking method—a simple étuvée. 

Besides eggs, asparagus has many other friends in the food world:  Cured meats, smoked fish, mushrooms, peas, artichokes, arugula, onions, nuts (especially pine nuts, walnuts & hazelnuts), cheese (fresh and aged goat, Gruyère, Parmesan, Pecorino, Gouda, Fontina, mascarpone, ricotta...), salty/briny condiments (olives, capers, anchovies), Dijon mustard, orange, lemon, butter, cream, olive and nut oils and fresh herbs (basil, thyme, tarragon, parsley and mint...).  It is easy to see how you could eat asparagus several times a week for the few weeks of spring and never get bored.

Since I have already written a basics post about asparagus, I thought that for my calendar post this month I would share a preparation that was new to me:  Asparagus Pesto.  I ran across it while working on an upcoming class.  It is from Michael Chiarello's Tra Vigne cookbook...and it is delicious.    

There are no surprise ingredients in this pesto.  It features cooked asparagus puréed with basil, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic and olive oil.  Because of the water content in the asparagus, the resulting pesto is lighter and fluffier than one would expect.  It is wonderful on pasta (which is how I'm sharing it today in Chiarello's recipe  that is reminiscent of a classic Ligurian pasta with basil pesto, green beans and potatoes).  But because of its almost mousse-like texture, it also makes a fine spread for crostini or bruschetta (perfect as an accompaniment to a baked egg....or topped with a poached egg....).

If you have never cooked asparagus before, the recipes in today's post are a perfect place to start.  In both recipes the asparagus is simply cooked in rapidly boiling, salted water—the tenderness to which it is cooked is the main difference between the two.  For the pesto, the asparagus should be cooked until it is soft....five minutes or more.  I would consider this to be too soft for a side dish or garnish, but it is perfect if the goal is a purée.  Don't cook it too long though, or you will lose the bright green color.  Furthermore, since the goal is soft asparagus with a bright green color, the recipe directs you to shock the cooked asparagus in a bowl of ice water or under cold running water which will stop the cooking process and "set" the color.

For the asparagus "garnish" in the pasta dish, the asparagus is cooked for less time.  You want it to be tender...but to still have texture.  The balance between texture and tenderness is up to you.  Somewhere around 2 to 3 minutes should be about right, but the only way to know if it is done to your liking is to fish a piece out of the boiling water and taste it.  This method—boiling just to the point of tenderness—is the one that you will probably use the most often.  It is perfect preparation for asparagus that will be making its way into the many and varied dishes that it will appear in over the next couple of months.

Pasta with Asparagus Pesto & Baby Potatoes

1/2 lb. small potatoes, scrubbed and sliced 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick

Olive oil

4 oz. (trimmed weight) asparagus, cut into 2 to 3 inch lengths at an angle

3/4 lb. Fettuccine, orecchiette or farfalle

1 recipe Asparagus pesto (recipe below)

Salt

Toasted pine nuts, for garnish

Freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish

Place the potatoes in a high-sided sauté pan with a lid and add water to just barely cover the potatoes.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt.  Simmer the potatoes until they are tender; set aside.

Blanch the asparagus in 6 quarts of boiling well salted water until just tender (about 2 to 3 minutes).  Lift the asparagus out of the water and spread on a towel.  Add the pasta to the water and cook until al dente.  Drain, reserving some of the pasta water.

Place the pesto in a large bowl.  Add enough pasta water (about a quarter cup) to the pesto to thin it to a sauce consistency.  Add the drained potatoes, the blanched asparagus and the pasta and toss to coat...adding more pasta water (you may need as much as another quarter cup) and/or a drizzle of olive oil as necessary to obtain a fluid sauce.  

Taste and correct the seasoning.  Serve immediately, garnished with pine nuts and Parmesan and passing freshly grated Parmesan separately.  Serves 4

Note: A one pound bunch of asparagus will yield about 8 oz. of trimmed asparagus.  (Trim by grabbing each spear of asparagus and bending until it snaps—it will naturally snap at the point where the spear transitions from tough and fibrous to tender.  Discard the fibrous ends.)  This is the exact amount needed for the pesto and the finished pasta.  I like to trim the whole bunch of asparagus, cut it all (at an angle) into 2 to 3 inch lengths and then divide into two piles—making sure all the tips are in the pile that will go into the finished pasta.  If the asparagus is very fat, make sure that it is cut on a very sharp angle...and cut the tips in half lengthwise.  Use the water that you use to blanch the stems for the pesto to cook the asparagus and pasta for the finished dish.

(Recipe adapted from The Tra Vigne Cookbook—Seasons in the California Wine Country, Michael Chiarello)

Asparagus Pesto

4 oz. (trimmed weight) asparagus, cut into 2 to 3 inch lengths at an angle

1 small clove of garlic, peeled and smashed to a purée with a pinch of salt

1/4 c. lightly toasted pine nuts

1/4 c. packed basil leaves (about 1/4 ounce), washed and dried

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 c. grated Parmesan (3/4 oz.)

Salt, to taste

In a pot of boiling, well salted water, blanch the asparagus until quite tender—about 5 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl of ice water, or rinse under cold running water, to stop the cooking process. Blot dry.

Place the cooked asparagus, garlic, basil and pine nuts in the food processor and process until the ingredients are finely and evenly chopped and beginning to purée (stop the food processor a couple of times to scrape down the sides).  With the food processor running, add the oil in a thin stream to achieve a sauce that is the consistency of mayonnaise.  If necessary, add a bit more oil.  Scrape down the sides; add the cheese and pulse to combine.  Thin with water if necessary to achieve a thick, saucy pesto.  Add salt to taste.  Makes a scant 1 cup.

Note:  This recipe makes exactly what you will need for 12 oz. of pasta (which will serve 4)...but is easily doubled if you would like to have leftovers for other uses.  It will keep, filmed with oil, in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for several days.

(Recipe adapted from The Tra Vigne Cookbook—Seasons in the California Wine Country, Michael Chiarello)

Printable Version (includes pesto)