Zuccanoes and an Aioli Feast

Many, many moons ago a very artistic cook wrote...actually hand-lettered...and hand illustrated (no photos) an amazing cookbook called the Moosewood Cookbook. The recipes are vegetarian but you won't miss the meat because they are soo good. 

Once the zucchini in my garden start producing a few every day, I almost always remember how much I love the Zuccanoes, which are actually stuffed zucchini. This is an especially good recipe if you've missed one of the squash which was hiding under one of those big leaves and it got to be 7 or 8 inches long...or longer! You slice it in half long wise and scoop out some of the inner part. If the zucchini has gotten more than a day or two old, you may be scooping out a lot of seeds...that's O.K. I sometimes just discard the seedy part that I remove. Below is the photo of the finished zuccanoe. Looks a bit like a canoe made out of a half of a zucchini, right? Love the melty cheese on top!

Now comes the fun part. You get to make a filling. The recipe calls for mushrooms, onions, garlic and sunflower seeds. Sometimes I do it that way and sometimes I make my own combination. A few days ago I combined some leftover brown rice (about a cup), some onion (1/4 of a large one) that I had cooked in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes, four or five cherry tomatoes, diced, some frozen corn (about 1/3 cup) that I defrosted in the microwave, a lone steamed and peeled golden beet that I found in the fridge, and some seasonings like salt, pepper and Italian herb mix. All of that went into the scooped out part of the two zucchini halves, then I put a three cheese mixture on top (equal parts Parmesan, shredded mozzarella and shredded cheddar) and then baked them in a small baking dish at 350 until tender, about 18-20 minutes. Delicious and I used up two leftovers! There was more filling, so I heated that up completely in a small skillet and served it along side the zuccanoes.

Yesterday for dinner I decided to make an aioli feast. Aioli is basically garlic mayo and you make it in a blender. It's another recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook and it's home territory is the south of France. You serve that wonderful sauce with warm and cool veggies and you can throw in leftovers if you don't care if you are authentic. The photo at the top of the post shows my version last night.

I served mine with steamed green beans, small chunks of red potatoes that I'd boiled until tender and then drained, a yellow zucchini that I sliced and then browned in a skillet, cherry tomatoes, and warmed leftover grilled chicken and sausage. It was delicious and I still have aioli in the fridge for another meal...and I had garlic breath! Other veggies that work well include broccoli, cauliflower, carrot sticks, mushrooms, and steamed beets. Hard cooked eggs are nice, too.

Here is the recipe for the Aioli found in the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. This garlic-mayonnaise sauce is on the thin side, but fully flavored.

Combine in a blender and blend well:
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
 1/2 teaspoon tamari
2 medium cloves crushed garlic
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks

After those are well blended at high speed, take off the cap so that you can pour into the blender. Turn the speed down to medium. Measure 1 cup oil...all or part olive oil...in a measuring cup that pours well.

Very gradually, drizzle in the oil a little at a time. After a few tablespoons have been drizzled in, gradually dribble in the rest of the oil in a slow, thin stream until all the oil is entered. The mixture should be fairly thick. Once it's thick, turn off the blender...if you beat too much it will get thin again which is not what you want.

Transfer to a covered jar or bowl and put in the fridge until ready to use if it's not already meal time. Be generous with this sauce for dipping those warm  and cool veggies (and protein if you like). It makes a nice topping for fish, too.