What's Cooking Wednesday: Baked Squash
While I am no recipe developer, I do want to invite you into my kitchen and show you one of my favorite ways to prepare summer squash. This recipe is intended to be adaptable to whatever produce you have on hand and can be adjusted to match your tastes and preferences. As such, I am going to call it a method, rather than a recipe. Just like in my own cooking, everything is approximate, by eye, and flexible. Experiment and see what works for you.
This roasted squash is bright, herbaceous, and savory. You can enjoy it as a light main dish, an addition to a brunch spread, or as a side dish. If you’re trying to convince a picky kid to give them a try, you might rebrand these as “zucchini pizzas.”
What you will need:
Squash: You can use zucchini, yellow squash, or eggplant for this recipe.
Salt, pepper, basil, and garlic powder: You can swap in any fresh herbs you like. If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can leave them off or use a tiny amount of dried herbs.
Olive oil
Tomatoes: You can use grape, cherry, or any variety of large tomato. If you don’t have fresh tomatoes on hand, you can use a pasta sauce or canned tomato product as well.
Cheese: I like to use mozzarella, but feta or parmesan would also be good choices.
The method:
Preheat your oven to 350° F.
Slice the squash lengthwise. If you are using small squashes, you may just cut them in half. If the squash is larger, you may wish to cut it into thirds or quarters. Basically, you will want to cut the squash into pieces that are ¼-½ inch thick and the length of the squash.
Oil your baking sheet. Oil your squash on both sides and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste.
Place the squash flat on the baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until they are fork tender.
While the squash is roasting, cut up your tomatoes. If using cherry or grape tomatoes, slice in half. If using a large tomato, dice it up into small cubes.
Remove your squash from the oven and cover them with tomatoes. Return to the oven and roast for a further 10 minutes.
Remove the squash again and sprinkle your cheese of choice on top. Add any fresh herbs at this point. Return to the oven and roast for a further 5 minutes, slightly longer if you want your cheese to be more browned.
Remove the squash, garnish with additional fresh herbs, if desired, and enjoy!
If you give this method of cooking squash a try, let us know how it works out for you! If you are looking for more ideas surrounding how to use up your zucchinis, check our last week’s post. ✌️
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