It seems everybody is drawing inspiration from the same culinary well these days: Stanley Tucci’s latest cookbook. Today, we showcase Tucci’s 4-Ingredient Zucchini Parmigiana Casserole. With guidance from the maestro himself…
Stanley’s super-simple Zucchini Parmesan: The round red things are potato slices!
This truly is a simple, easy, fast dish which will appeal to zucchini haters in spite of their groundless prejudices and unjustified loathings. The secret’s in the sauce. Not to mention the strangely sympat-ico pairing with fried potatoes…
Just do it…
This recipe is one of those which is more like a process – which can be applied to many veggie-and-sauce combinations. It requires no fancy equipment nor any ingredients you’d have to make a special trip to the store for.
Maybe the best part? It’s the first new recipe to surface this burgeoning summer season geared to using up surplus zucchinis!
‘Mr. Simple’
Tucci has quickly earned a reputation among like-minded cooks for his streamlined cooking style. He is, in fact, my hero! I’m all-in… I’ve even come to call him ‘Mr. Simple’!
“I wrangled four fading zucchini from the fridge, sliced them into rounds, coated them with olive oil and salt, and placed them in the oven to roast for about 20 minutes,” Tucci recalls in the book. “I fried up some sliced potatoes in a cast-iron pan, then layered the whole lot in a small baking [dish] with the previous day’s marinara and some grated Parmigiano, and baked it for about 30 minutes.
Yes. That’s the ‘recipe’. Blink, and you’ve missed it!
Why it works so well
The simplicity of the dish is one key reason it works so well. Very little opportunity to blow it. Then, there’s the great combination of flavours and textures. First, there’s the soft, fruity zucchini, Then comes the contrast with the crispy, caramelized potatoes. The zesty marinara sauce mediates the overall flavour profile adding a base layer of umami and a much-needed zesty component. Finally, the Parm complements all of the other ingredients and cements the dish’s unmistakable Italian identity…
Try it with…
The zucchini can be subbed out in favour of eggplant, if you like. I fact, Tucci mentions, in his com-ments, that the recipe is adapted from a family Zucchini and Eggplant dish.
The dish won’t work as well with winter squashes as it does with summer squashes. It’s matter of hard versus soft flesh and fruity versus ‘rooty’ flavours.
But don’t let anything I’ve said dissuade you from trying this procedure with any other appropriate veggie you might think would go. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be squash!
Zucchini Tips
I have to add this note about Zucchini. And I’ll be repeating it, in one form or another, every time I offer you a zucchini recipe this summer. Never use a large Zucchini. By that I mean more than about 2 in / 5 cm in diameter.
The same goes for eggplants, for that matter. You’ll often see larger eggplants at the supermarket. I don’t know why. But you’ll never see giant zucchinis in the produce department. That’s because they get woody in texture, and their flavour turns woody to match. And they develop a lot of seeds in a gummy matrix in the centre that you won’t want to eat.
If you grow your own zucchinis this summer, resist the temptation to let them swell to monster dim-ensions. Unless you’re planning 0n entering a ‘largest vegetable’ competition at the country fair… Pick hem when they’re about 2 – 2.5 in / 5 – 7 cm in diameter. They’ll be about 8 in / 20 cm long. You’ll be glad you did. And when you come to make a dish like Tucci’s Zucchini Parm. The slices will be right in tune with the size of your potato slices… This handy concordance in form factors will also apply to other zucchini dishes you’ll want to make.
My take
Aside from the tips and hacks offered above… I can only add that this dish works well with fingerling potatoes as well as smallish regular potatoes. And sprinkle a little extra Parmesan on top of each serving…
Do try this lovely, simple creation – especially, anytime you need to impress in a hurry!
~ Maggie J.