summer side dish: zucchini, carrots and tomatoes / contorno estivo: zucchine, carote e pomodorini

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summer on the plate
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet by Kim Adrian¹ is the most engrossing memoir I have ever read and one I heartily recommend. The writing is delicate and evocative. The author tells her difficult, often deeply painful, story through vignettes organized in glossary format. The vignettes work like pieces of a puzzle: as the book proceeds, the reader reconstructs the lives of the main characters—the author, her parents and her sister. Adrian's husband and children also play an important role, one of hope, as we see that she has been able to create a completely different experience for her family.

Ultimately, the glossary’s imposed order serves less to organize emotional chaos than to expose difficult but necessary truths, such as the fact that some problems simply can’t be solved, and that loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean saving them.

In the book we see the author developing a relationship with her father when she is an adult and he's become sober. Her mother's mental illness however, prevents the establishing of an even keel and in the end, long distance is what allows a kind of truce to take hold. 

The book has some references to food, but the part that inspired me is the mother's skill as a gardener, which never fails to surprise the author and the reader, appearing as it does against a background of mental illness.

the ingredients, fresh from the farmers' market
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

My mother was not a gardener, though she always had a pot of basil (basilico) in the summer, a tradition which I have tried to maintain. Last year I was particularly successful and my basil plant lasted until last month, when I planted a new one. The other ingredients in the photo above come from the farmers' market, though I should say that for the last couple of months I have also been eating lettuce (lattuga) from my garden and have been supplying my husband with a variety of leafy greens (chard, kale and tatsoi) in small quantities. 

Zucchini always make me think of my mother: she cooked them in various ways when in season, but as children, neither my brother nor I liked the vegetable. In time, my taste changed (while my brother's didn't), so at least I gave my mother satisfaction when she brought a zucchini dish to the table.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Summer side dish: zucchini, carrots and tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 3 ounces /  85 g carrot
• 3 tablespoons / 45 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 ounces / 56 g spring onion², red or white, diced small
• 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon Harissa spice mix (depending on brand and personal preference)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 8-9 ounces /225-255 g zucchini (I particularly like the Costata Romanesco variety) 
• 5 ounces cherry plum or grape tomatoes
• 3-4 basil leaves, chiffonade
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
• 3/4 ounce / 20 g freshly grated cheese of choice, optional: if you omit it, the dish is vegan

Scrub carrot(s) well and scrape the surface to remove a thin layer of skin, then grate using the extra-coarse side of a hand grater.

Warm up the olive oil in 10-inch/25-cm skillet.

Add the onion, lower the heat and stir, then after 1 minute, add the grated carrot and stir. After 2 minutes, sprinkle the harissa spice mix, stir well and cover. Cook on low heat for 6 minutes, until the onion is soft.

In the meantime, trim the zucchini, then grate using the extra-coarse side of a hand grater.

Uncover the skillet, add the garlic, stir and cook for 1 minute. Add the zucchini, turn up the heat to medium, stir well and cook for 1 minute. Cover, lower the heat and cook for 3 minutes.

In the meantime, quarter the tomatoes.

Uncover the skillet, add the tomatoes and stir. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the zucchini are tender. Sprinkle the basil and the sea salt, stir well. Turn off the heat, sprinkle the cheese on the vegetables and cover.

Serve warm.

Serves 2-3

Bring the skillet to the table or transfer to a plate and serve

I have made this dish many times (most recently last night) and a couple of times I have substituted a chopped peeled peach for the tomatoes. Either way, this dish is delicious.

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¹ The novel's page on the author's website which includes excerpts of reviews
² A video explaining the difference between spring onions and green onions (a.k.a., scallions)

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Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

contorno estivo: zucchine, carote e pomodorini

or launch the contorno estivo: zucchine, carote e pomodorini audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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This is my second contribution to the 39th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started 13 years ago and that I continue to host.

The roundup of the event.

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FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

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onion, zucchini, carrot, side dish, tomatoes, Italian cuisine

Comments

[Lucia]

Perfect timing I was just looking for other ways to make zucchini. Thank you for sharing.

[Elizabeth]

Your summer vegetable dish looks delicious! I keep hoping that we will have zucchini from our garden. For the 3rd year in a row (or is it the 4th?) I am tormenting myself by trying to grow it. Last year, we got two zucchini. Two.... But that is better than the previous times when there were none.

This year, the plants are covered in blossoms - all male. I don't know how to encourage the plants to produce female blossoms (I gather that they can produce both.)

I've put Kim Adrian's book on my increasingly longer "to read" list.

[Simona Carini]

You are welcome, Lucia. Glad my recipe came at a good time :)

[Claudia]

I have actually avoided planting zucchini as so many complain about the surfeit of them in their gardens. Your dish looks so appetizing, a perfect summer side dish. The book however, sounds a bit painful.

[Simona Carini]

I hear you, Elizabeth. I tried some years ago to grow zucchini and there was little return on the investment, so I now stick to what I know does well here: kale. Though this year I've been successful with some lettuce, which makes me happy :)

[Simona Carini]

I am confident I could handle a surfeit of zucchini, but in my case just a handful materialized. Given your climate, though, and your gardening skills, I would expect you'd face that problem, Claudia. The book is intense, indeed, but also hopeful. The format allowed me to read it slowly, which I usually need to do when a book is intense.

[Elizabeth]

The only vegetables I've had any luck at growing from seed are Scarlet Runner beans. They really do grow like weeds and it's no wonder that the story is "Jack and the Bean Stalk".

I also planted Swiss chard (late because I couldn't find the seedlings at the garden centers when they finally opened, and had to try planting them from seed in late June). As far as I can tell, none of the seeds germinated. I also planted sunflower seeds and none of them came up either. It's so trying having a black thumb....

I threw caution to the winds this year and planted red okra seeds for the second year in a row, in spite of the fact that last year, I harvested one spindly little okra pod.

I have high hopes this year. So far, two out of four of the plants are really doing well and by a miracle, it looks like there will be at least 8 okra pods!

Next year, I'll try kale. Maybe that will work for me.

(Baby steps. Baby steps.)

[Simona Carini]

Dear Elizabeth, we can start a club. I just planted a sunflower seedling plus some more kale. Baby steps for me too. Good luck with the red okra :)