Harvesting My Garden s Biggest Zucchini for this Italian Bake Patch to Plate Series

Buongiorno, we are back in our vegetable patch and I'm about to pick a round zucchini over here. Look, we have left this on purpose to get slightly bigger than the others as I've got in mind a lovely dish today, another vegetarian dish and I'm going to be cutting it now. Look how beautiful it is and obviously the longer you leave them the larger they begin to look. This is a little bit like a small watermelon and over here I'm going to show you another couple of varieties of zucchini and they're not from our vegetable patch. These are golden zucchini and they were donated to me by my sister-in-law Jenna, Julie's sister, and I think they were donated to her by a neighbor. These are fresher in terms of the texture but also they are slightly lighter and actually they can be consumed raw in a salad. Today I will be adding them to my dish for brightness and also because they're lighter. Whereas these green ones, they are a couple of supermarket ones, they are the standard war, horse warrior sort of zucchini. You are never going to be disappointed, you know what to expect. They're slightly less water content than this one and you will use them every day. These ones here, they are beautiful to be cooked in, especially if you're stuffing them. They contain a lot of water, they're high in water content, but I'm going to be mixing them all together today. Also I will be complementing the dish with some zucchini leaves and I'm going to show you here. I've actually spotted a large leaf which I already earmarked and I'm going to be using this. I'm not sure if you're aware but you can use the leaves. They're a little bit spiky when you first pick them but they're perfectly okay. Just the one and that will be at the base of my dish and I'm going to be showing you in the greenhouse a little while back we did another meal and we showed you the serpent zucchini. We still don't have any zucchini but the plant is growing beautifully and also you can eat the leaves. I'll just give you an update on that one and I'll pick while I'm there some basil and some parsley. However Julia's just reminded me that we've got another couple of little zucchini here which I can actually have so I'm going to be using them also. They're little ones but they will all add flavour and the element of satisfaction as they are from our patch. Here I am inside the greenhouse and this is the serpent zucchini plant which I said I would give you an update on. It has grown considerably since the last update we've given you and it's now all the way here and it will continue growing and I've even put a wire literally all the way around there, excuse the butterflies got trapped in it, all the way around here just in case it goes mad. I can see that there are some, can you see here, there are some flowers beginning to develop so really looking forward to it. Actually I think, look here, there's some little, can you see, look, there's flowers up here and they've actually gone, beginning to and see things will pollinate. You can probably hear there's a beast caught in here as well. I keep the door open and then they come in and pollinate anyway However I said I would come and pick some basil so I'll get a nice little sprig there and also some parsley. So I'll go in this plant here which looks a little bit fuller. Also I'm going to use this basil which is called Red Ruben and it's different. Taste-wise it's very similar but it looks slightly different so just for the sake of it I'll just go and pinch a little from over here and I'll show it to you. Look, see it looks just like normal basil and it smells just like normal basil but it's purple in colour and I'm going to get myself a few more leaves of parsley and then I'll see you indoors where I'll start cooking this However I nearly forgot before I go in, these are artichokes and they are ready so they will not be part of this recipe but I'm going to be picking them now as otherwise they will go over and I'll cut it at the base as I will be making something with the artichoke itself, a very typical Sicilian dish called Carciofi a Tu Pateto. I'll show you what that means later but I'll cook this most probably tomorrow the day after tomorrow and also I'll be cooking something with the stem and here we got another one however this plant is still going there's a little one here but this one is ready so likewise I'm going to go at the bottom and I'll cut it here and then I'll cook something with the stem and I'll do something else with the artichoke. And then we'll leave the other one to develop a bit more yeah? We will yes but there will be in a separate video and when the video is released I'll put a little link up here so that you can have a look if you wish so see you in a little while. Third time lucky. Third time lucky yes. And I'm back in the kitchen ready to make my garden zucchini bake three colors but one dish let me quickly run you through the ingredients first though so you've seen my zucchini here is my round one the start of the show today by the way you do not have to use round courgettes you do not have to use three different colors they all taste very similar the texture might be slightly different so just use one type of zucchini if you like and these are the most box standard zucchini you'll find available in any supermarket also quantity wise here I've got four long ones round one and two little ones so you'll have to adjust it depending on how many people you're cooking for I'm doing a fairly large batch Diane my mother-in-law she's asked for a portion so I'm making some of her also then I've got here some fresh tomatoes I will be using a handful of that and some grana padano herbs you see me picking some parsley and some basil I will be using a little garlic most probably one clove here is my beautiful big large leaf I've washed it I washed all of the vegetables of course and that this will be going at the base of my dish a couple of small size white onions any color will do tin of chopped tomato the cheapest you can find because the flavor from all of the ingredients will enrich the flavor of the tomato so you don't need to spend a lot of money I've shown you the grana I've got here a fresh ball of mozzarella still in its own water which I will be chopping later and I will be assisted by some balsamic vinegar optional you do not have to use it but it will add a nice flavor and of course as always salt and pepper and olive oil and hopefully haven't left anything out if I have I will mention later but of course you can always find the list of all of the ingredients and the cooking instructions in the notes there is a part up in every YouTube video not just mine where you can find in the description of the ingredients and also the cooking instructions and I'm trying to be always as detailed as I can and the quantities I'll be using today is what I will be listing so let's make a start I'll make a very simple sauce first using my tomato here and this is something that also you can make if you're doing a very simple pasta sauce so I'll show you in any case what I think makes these recipes special is not just the fact that they are simple to make but also the convenience in my case I'm using a lot of stuff from the garden vegetables and so on but even if you were to buy them they are not that expensive and you will find that they are very very cheap to make so garlic I crush including the skin and I'll place it inside the saucepan with some olive oil I'm using a couple of onions but also you could get away with just using one if you want or none in some cases in some families they don't use any at all but actually I do like the texture of the onions for that very reason I will actually be slicing them in half first and then I'll tender them on the base and I'll leave them a fairly chunky like this they're about half a centimeter in thickness tomato wise I'm using chopped tomatoes I think I mentioned earlier but you can use whole tomatoes it doesn't really matter if you want use whole tomatoes just put them in the food processor and they'll become chopped of course so I'm ready to move to the hob next the garlic has been seasoning for a good 30 seconds and I can add the onions next temperature is medium-high I'll turn it down slightly now and I will leave now the onions to cook gently for about three minutes until they're slightly softer and my tin of chopped tomatoes can go in followed by some salt and pepper I turn the temperature up again so that the tomato start boiling and I'll place the lid on and I'll turn it down on to medium and I'll leave it to gently simmer for about 10 minutes back to my zucchini and I'll start with the round one first so I'm going to be removing the top underneath this and also I will remove the bum just a little and I'll chop it in half first like so but I'll show you the inside quickly so that you can see how remarkable it looks and the similarities to a melon is quite incredible anyway so the reason why I cut it in half is because I want to cut it this way so that presentationally we look better later but I'm gonna be cutting it quite chunky because I'm going to be shallow frying these and it will shrink so I'm doing each piece in about one centimeter just like this now I'm doing exactly the same with the second half and I have to say it is a joy to be able to slice it so simply and easily if I didn't have the large round courgette by the way I would have most probably just used this style of courgettes but likewise I'm going to be removing the top as I don't want it and also remove the bum and sometimes these are okay to eat but I don't know now how long these have been picked for and these are supermarket ones so I will remove them just in case and just like I did with the round courgette I'm slicing these in one centimeter pieces you can also choose to cut them lengthwise the reason why I'm going like this is for texture and also presentation but again as I said if I didn't have the round one I would only most probably just use these ones and cut them this way so here's the other one and by the way the ones from our garden they're really tender and really really delicious and I'm back on the hob so I've got a little frying pan going and I'll add some olive oil at the bottom I'm gonna be fairly generous because this will be all of the oil I'll be using for all of my zucchini so there you go cover the entire surface and as the oil reaches temperature I will add my sliced zucchini I will start with the round one first but there's no reason why and I will carry on until I cook them all they will take about three minutes per side they do not need to be totally cooked by the way I said they will be finished cooking in the oven so just enough to give them a little bit of a golden color in terms of the shading that you want and then they'll be ready so in three minutes time I'll tell them and I'll show you what they look like when they come out. I like eggplants by the way zucchini have got a very high water content so you can actually keep the temperature quite high and the risk of burning them is very very low of course stay on top of them but look three minutes in and you can see that they've already got lovely golden color and I'm turning them around and of course you may have noticed that the oil is still there because they've got a high water content so they will not absorb much. I've had the three minutes and they're ready to come out and I'm actually placing them inside a bowl with some kitchen paper so that any residue of oil will be absorbed and these are done so I'll do the rest I will follow exactly the same process with the little ones and I'll see you once they were cooked. In the meantime 10 minutes have passed and my sauce is ready here it is look and it's looking very nice it's smelling beautiful the one thing I'll do though before I carry on is to add a little basil you saw me picking this earlier from Julie's greenhouse so in it goes always add it at the end as it will release lots of beautiful flavor and now that the basil is in there where is the oil here I will also add a little bit more olive oil and I will mix it all together and I'll place the lid back on and I will leave it to gently cool down until I'm ready to put together my zucchini bake and the oil and the basil will really really help marinating everything together and as I said earlier you can use this as it is for an excellent pasta sauce so I've just started on my last round of zucchini the little ones and I'm getting my fresh tomatoes ready so these are baby plum tomatoes you can use also cherry tomatoes but they're fresh or you can also use salad tomatoes if you like the one thing I'll do though is to slice them in half this is because I will be gently frying them with some garlic and I want the juice to be released also I want them to absorb the flavor from the garlic so literally just enough or if they're very large you can also cut them into four pieces and of course you do not have to use them at all my zucchini are very very wobble by the way apologies for the noise you can leave them as they are fresh and garnish the top before they go in the oven or you do not have to use them at all or do what I do of course which I think is a little bit more flavorful so I'll wait until the zucchini are finished and then I'll use the same pan so I save on the washing up however I will be using a new clove of garlic but with this one I will be removing the skin first and I'm not going along and using my knife I'm slicing it in very very little pieces about one millimeter in thickness each piece the one thing I do like about cooking of course is that there is no waste of time so whilst the zucchini cook I'll get some of my other ingredients ready and I'll start by chopping the parsley which you saw me picking from the garden earlier in tiny little pieces like this and here's my mozzarella and the reason why I left it in water in case you're wondering is because it's very warm and so I want to make sure that it stays as cool as possible for as long as possible I'm going to grate this and I got here a little cheese grater and I'm gonna be using the larger size of the cheese grater because if I was to use the smaller one it will not come out and be a mess whereas like this is considerably easier so you can do that with any cheese of course but mozzarella is what I tend to use for this job also you do not have to grate it like this you can slice it with a knife preferences and choices but I think like this will be nicer because it will be sprinkled on top of my finished dish so here is my mozzarella I'll turn the grater the other way around and I'll use now the grana padano and I'll grate some of this of course the combination of cheese you use is entirely up to you but if you want to keep to the Sicilian tradition you might want to use mozzarella and grana or parmigiano-reggiano or the hard mature Italian cheese that you can find considerably cheaper in supermarket these days but if you wanted you can replace it with provolone or in the cheddar or ida moguda but do make sure that whatever cheese you use you have a cheese that melts because obviously be very nice and of course as always quantities entirely up to you and to taste but here I've got a good couple of tablespoons of grana padano and also as I mentioned before a bowl of fresh mozzarella and my third batch of codretti is ready I've done them all together by the way they're cooked and they're beautiful so I'll do exactly the same as to what I did with the large ones some kitchen paper to absorb any of the excess oil and I will leave them to cool down for a few minutes whilst I get the tomatoes ready and I'll show you what to do some fresh olive oil as the old one has all gone my pan is still very hot from earlier so this won't take very long at all so garlic goes in first and I will leave it literally for about 10 seconds no more than that because it's a very thinly cut and it will bend very quickly so you can see and I'll add the tomatoes next I'm not going to be putting any salt or any pepper as I've already peppered and salted the dicogets and I want to be careful with the salt intake but if you look I'm turning them so that the sliced side faces downwards they will cook quicker and then they will also release that juice I was talking to you earlier so hopefully I will not burn myself and then they will be ready in approximately three minutes do ensure that you keep the temperature only medium-high by the way and they're ready and all I have to do now is to just add a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar and also some of the parsley I chopped earlier I'll add on top and I'll mix them all together and I will leave them to gently cool down and they will marinate and I will do exactly the same with my zucchini so there is still the pepper in there so I'll remove it first one and two this is very soggy never mind that comes off quite easily a little balsamic vinegar on top of each plate and of course the parsley goes in next and I'll go in and mix them all together so that just like the tomatoes all of the flavor from the balsamic vinegar and the parsley is combined with my zucchini and at last I'm ready to assemble my garden zucchini bake so I got an oven dish here and you can choose whatever oven dish you've got at home ideally a round one would have been better or an oval one because aesthetically wouldn't look better but I've got one so I'm using a square one now you will remember my zucchini leaf so it's a little bit bigger than my plate so I will be placing this at the bottom so what I'll do though I'll chop it here first and again you do not have to have a zucchini leaves to make this dish as I've got it in the garden I'm making use of it so I'm just slicing it and just really keeping the more tender parts so I think I've got pretty much everything that I want and I'm fitting I'll cut it over here also so that it will fit nicely so I'll remove that one from here and I'll start with my tomato base and before I do so I want to taste some and let you know what it's like it's beautiful really really summery just cook it with some pasta spaghetti or rigatoni whatever you like more and put some parmesan cheese at the end or some grana padano at the end it's just really healthy and beautiful but I'm putting a little base at the bottom first like I do when I make a lasagna and I'll start with my zucchini leaves and I will put them at the bottom and then they will disappear and because I put a little sauce at the bottom of my oven dish they will cook also underneath so you will not even know they're there but they're very healthy and they're full of fiber and I'll follow it with another couple of generous spoons of my tomato sauce and here it goes ironically when our children were little we used to have vegetables and put it in pasta sauce and hide it that was a way to get them to eat vegetables so this is not to dissimilar really because the leaf is at the bottom now I've got a little image in mind for presentation purposes so I'll start with my courgettes the large ones first and I'll go in the middle and I will start to position them one after the other like this so that hopefully I will have enough to cover the entire line there we go look just right I've reached the end and I've used all of my round courgette pieces so I can now move on to the other courgette the green and the yellow what I'll do here very similarly I will start putting them in a line but I will alternate I'll go for a green one and a yellow one a green one and a yellow one this is not just because of the visual effect the coloring but also because of the texture I mentioned earlier that the yellow ones the golden zucchini they are lighter so I think it'd be nice to have a different texture as you eat them so I'll just carry on and I'll do both lines until I get to the end so I have reached the end of the second line and I've got quite a few left so I'm not gonna waste them of course by the way this is an excellent side dish really really delicious but we'll use them to close the gaps and I'll continue alternating the color going yellow and green green and yellow and so on until they're all gone and if you have followed the same process as I have you will have some leftover juice at the bottom of your bowl so whatever you do do not throw it away just pour it on top just like this and I'm ready to move to the tomatoes next here they are and I always wait for everything to cool down slightly so that I can use my hands and it is considerably easier but what I'll do with these I'll go in the middle first and I will slot the whole tomato in between the various zucchini not necessarily every other one whenever there is a good gap and they will be releasing some additional flavor so I'll just put them in the middle and I'll carry on also you will not be able to put them in every gap there is no space but just ensure that there are some in there you can see that every other one I've got a little tomato in there and the rest I will be positioning them on top of my zucchini just like this and I'll make sure that they are visible so just position them the best you can and just like the zucchini I've got some beautiful garlic and various juices left so I'll add them in I've got a little sauce left over by the way and as tempting as it could be to just put it on top I'm not going to otherwise it would make it very very liquidy but as I said this is ideal for pasta so I'll leave it on one side so cheese next and I'll start with the parmesan cheese first and I'll sprinkle it all over the top of my vegetables just like this by the way if you wanted to you could have put a layer of this before you added your vegetables but I like to have on top as it will melt and it will be beautiful as you bite into it and here is my grated mozzarella and as I mentioned before I choose to grate it because I can spread it evenly across the entire surface and it is ready to go in the oven but before I do so I'll add some olive oil as it will help also cooking on the top and I'll place it in for anything between 25 to 30 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees doesn't matter if it's conventional or if it's a fan oven like mine and then it should be the cheese should be melting and there'll be a beautiful color and then I'll get it out and I'll leave it to rest but I'll show you what it looks like once it comes out of the oven so see you in about half an hour look at this 30 minutes exactly and it is ready and it's bubbling away so that is another reason why I didn't want to put more tomato at the end because clearly there's plenty of liquid going on in there so it's really really hot you can wait 10 minutes and eat it if you like in our case though I will wait until has cooled down for a good hour most probably and then I'll place it in the fridge for another hour an hour and a half and Julie and I will be eating this cold before it goes in the fridge I'll put a little cover on top so that no smell is created in the fridge and the better still if you like you can eat this tomorrow leave it in the fridge overnight the cooler the better because it's really hot outside it's summer and it will marinate further and it will inherit some beautiful flavors but we will eat this tonight so I'll see you in about two to three hours time once it's out of the fridge and then I'll tell you what it tastes like then see you later bye in case you're wondering how to eat this by the way this could be a perfect main meal as it is going to be for us tonight or could also be a side dish in our case as I mentioned will be the main meal it's still actually a little bit warm underneath because it's been in the fridge an hour but you can see how much easier it is actually to lift it once I've actually cut through a portion he said it's because I've got a leaf underneath it didn't seem a good idea so we are going to eat ours with a little salad and some avocado but as I mentioned you can use anything you like perfect side dish with chicken or beef or anything fish so but we want to have a vegetarian meal tonight as we need have a heavy weekend so let's see what it's like and I'll let you know I guess some of this lovely cheese also and a little tomato mmm it's beautiful it's a blend between a caponata if you know what a caponata is if you don't there's a video up here and the parmigiana it's a beautiful summer flavor really delicious and because it's still a little bit warm you can appreciate it maybe a little bit more but the cooler it gets the better I hope you make it and as I said you can use any type of zucchini you find in the supermarket or in Julie's vegetable patch anyway thank you for watching the video and let me know if you make it and how you get on ciao ciao thank you bye