Vegetable Noodle Soup Italian Style

I think this is my favorite summer soup. For one it tastes great, so italian, for another the most important ingredients, the zucchini and tomatoes, grow in my parents garden.

The original recipe is in german. The webside LECKER.de is one of my favorite german cooking and recipe sides. They have lots of tasty dishes. When I need a recipe for one ingredient this is one of the websides I consult.

I made it a few times over the summer. It's pretty easy to make. And even if you don't follow the recipe to closely it still tastes great.

It tastes best with bread, the chesse muffins for example, and some crème fraîche.

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Vegetable Noodle Soup Italian Style

3 onions
2 garlic cloves
2 carrots
1 zucchini
2 beef tomatoes or bulls heart tomatoes
180 g pasta, small
2 tbsp tomato paste
1,5 l vegetable broth
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 bunch of parsley
4 tsp thyme, dry
salt
pepper

1. Skin the onions and garlic cloves.
2. Mince the garlic.
3. Cube the onions.
4. Peel the carrots. Cut them into 3-4 mm thick slices.
5. Wash and dry the zucchini and the tomatoes.
6. Cut the zucchini into 5-6 mm thick slices. Quarter the slices.
7. Cut the tomatoes into rather big cubes.
8. Heat the oil in a big sauce pan.
9. Braise the onions and the garlic in it until the onions turn translucent.
10. Add the carrots and the zucchini and braise them for about 8 minutes.
11. Add the tomato paste and let it sweat a little.
12. Add the tomatoes and mix them in.
13. Add the vegetable broth and bring it to a boil.
14. Add the pasta.
15. Let the soup boil at a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
16. In the mean time chop the parsley.
17. Add the parsley and the thyme at the end.
18. Season with salt and pepper.
 

Bon appétit!!

Zucchini Pizza

Well, if you are looking for a healthy pizza dough substitute, you won't find it here. There is just to much cheese for that. Way too much for my taste, so I reduced it some.
The dough doesn't really get crusty like normal pizza dough, it's more along the line of a casserole.

I didn't use normal pizza sauce. I have a dry bruschetta mix you make with some oil. I love it. I always have it on hand, something less to buy, and it's not to strong when you only have a minimum of toppings.

Since this was about the "dough", I chose a topping that wouldn't overpower the taste of it. The "margarita" topping goes really well on the zucchini pizza. The problem is that it's to wet. I had to dab of some of the excess water from the tomatoes. I would say dry toppings are more suitable for this.

 

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Zucchini Pizza

4 cups zucchini
2 eggs
3/4 cup mozzarella
3/4 cup gouda
1/3 cup parmesan
1 tsp salt
pepper
topping of your choice

1. Wash and dry the zucchini.
2. Grate the zucchini, make it as fine as possible.
3. Put the zucchini in a colander, season with salt and leave it for at least 20 minutes.
4. Squeeze out as much water as you can.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 205°C/400°F.
6. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet.
7. Grate the mozzarella, the gouda and the parmesan.
8. Put the zucchini, the cheese and the eggs into a bowl. Mix everything together.
9. Spread the "dough" evenly on the baking sheet.
10. Bake it for 20 minutes.
11. Take the sheet out of the oven and spreed the prepared toppings on it.
12. Bake the pizza for another 15 minutes.

Bon appétit!!

Baked Zucchini Sticks

I wasn't really impressed with the sticks. I've seen them a few times online and always wanted to try them out. I thought they would be crispy, kinda like fries. But they were rather soft.
The panko didn't stick all that well to the sticks. And after a while the eggs made the panko mix rather lumpy.

On the plus side, they went well with the Greek Style Zucchini Salad.

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Baked Zucchini Sticks

500 g zucchini
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan
1 tsp oregano
salt
pepper
1 egg

1. Wash and dry the zucchini.
2. Cut the zucchini into sticks, about 10 cm long.
3. Grate the parmesan.
4. Combine the panko, the parmesan and the oregano.
5. Season the zucchini with salt and pepper.
6. Beat the egg lightly.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 215°C/425°F.
8. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet.
9. Turn the sticks first in the egg and than in the panko mix.
10. Place the zucchini sticks on the baking sheet, skin side down.
11. Bake the sticks for 20-25 minutes, until the panko turns a light gold-brown color.

Serve with marinara sauce or the Greek Styled Zucchini Salad.

Bon appétit!!

Greek Style Zucchini Salad

This salad is great for the summer. Fresh and light. An ideal side dish for a barbecue. And you can make it the day before, so you have less stress.

I even called my mom to give her the recipe. Cause I know it's something she and my dad would like and they have lots of zucchinis growing in their garden.
The call was actually kinda funny. My mom wanted to try it out immediately. And was upset cause she didn't have any lemons.
"And dad was just grocery shopping. If I had known. Than I could make it now!" ... "If I just had lemons." ... and it went like that for a few minutes. And then "Mom do you have scallions?" "No." "The cheese?" "No." "So, you actually only have the zucchini."

I doubled the quantity. Cause I only had big zucchinis from my parents garden. I didn't want to leave a cut piece. But really it's not so much, particularly if you make it for a barbecue.

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Greek Style Zucchini Salad

Salad Ingredients

500 g zucchini
2 tbsp chives
2 tbsp dill
1/2 tsp mint, dry
2 scallions
250 g feta
2 tsp salt

1. Wash and dab the zucchini dry.
2. Grate the zucchini. Don't make it to fine.
3. Put the zucchini in a colander. Salt it and leave it for at least 20 minutes.
4. Carefully squeeze out the excess water and put the zucchini into a bowl.
5. Wash and dry the chives. Cut them into thin slices. Add the chives to the zucchini.
6. Mince the dill. Add it to the zucchini.
7. Wash and dab the scallions dry. Cut them into slices and add them to the zucchini.
8. Crumble the feta and add them to the zucchini.
9. Add the mint.
10. Carefully mix everything together.

Dressing

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
3 garlic cloves
pepper

1. Press out the garlic cloves.
2. Combine the oil, the juice, the zest and the garlic in a small bowl.
3. Season with pepper.

To Assemble

salt

1. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix everything together.
2. If necessary add some more salt.
3. Allow the salad to infuse in the fridge for at least a few hours, better over night.

Bon appétit!!

Zucchini Gnocchi with Zucchini Sauce

My parents grow among other things zucchini in their garden. And the last time I visited them, my suitcase was almost empty on the way back. So I filled that space with zucchinis. I ate lots of zucchini dishes in the following two weeks.

This was the first time I made gnocchi. I think they turned out pretty good. And it isn't as hard to make them as I thought.

The gnocchi themselfes didn't really taste like zucchini. But I already thought that would be the case, hence the zucchini sauce. And I was rather surprised how well the dried tomatoes went with it.

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Zucchini Gnocchi with Zucchini Sauce

Sauce

20 g pine nuts
1 jar dried tomatoes, in oil
3 scallions
150 g zucchini
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Fry the pine nuts in a frying pan without oil until they are gold braun. Put aside for later.
2. Let the tomatoes drip off and cut them into small pieces. Put aside for later.
3. Wash the scallions and dab them dry. Cut them into slices. Put aside for later.
4. Bring water in a small sauce pan to a boil.
5. Wash the zucchini and dab it dry. Cut it into rough slices.
6. Blanch the zucchini in the boiling water for about 30 seconds. Take them out and let them drip off.
7. Put the zucchini with the oil in a foodprocessor and blend them together until they reach a creamy consistency.
8. Season with salt and pepper.

Gnocchi

4 cups zucchini
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup basil
3 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 cups ricotta
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup parmesan
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Grate the zucchini.
2. Put the zucchini into a colander and mix the salt in. Leave it for at least 20 minutes. Squeeze as much water out of the zucchini as you can. First with bare hands, than with a paper towel.
3. Chop the basil.
4. Grate the lemon zest.
5. Grate the parmesan.
6. Put the zucchini, the basil, the zest, the ricotta, the egg yolks and the parmesan into a bowl and mix it together with a wooden spoon.
7. Season with pepper.
8. Add flour until the dough reaches a consistency with wich you can work. The less flour you use so much the better.
9. Dust your working surface generously with flour.
10. Roll the dough into 2,5 cm thick strings. Cut the string into 2 cm thick pieces. If you want, you can roll the pieces over a gnocchi board or use a fork to get the typical grooves.
11. Bring water to a boil in big sauce pan.
12. Put the gnocchi in the pan and cook them until they swim at the top. Stir constantly.
13. Take the gnocchi out with a slotted ladle.

Serve the gnocchi with the sauce and the pine nuts, the scallions and the tomatoes strewn on top.

Bon appétit!!

Tomato-Zucchini-Casserole

One of my older recipes. I wanted to make it again for some time now.

Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables. There are so many recipes and so many ways to use them.
I put in more of them than of the tomatoes. Because tomatoes always taste a little sour when you cook them in an oven.

The preparation is really simple and quickly done. It's suited quite well as a side dish to meat.
But you should really only use light products. Otherwise it's just to heavy. 

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Tomato-Zucchini-Casserole

2 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
2 zucchini
4 tomatoes
400-500 g gnocchi, refrigerated
200 g crème fraîche, light
300 ml whipping cream, light
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
thyme
Parmesan

1. Wash the zucchinis and tomatoes.
2. Cut the zucchinis into 5 mm thick slices. Put them into a bowl and douse them with the oil. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Skin the onions and garlic cloves.
4. Mince the garlic cloves and dice the onions. Alternatly you can dice the onions in a food processor.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/430°F.
6. Spread the onions and garlic on the bottom of a big casserole dish. Scatter the gnocchi evenly over it.
7. Cut the tomatoes into 5 mm thick slices. Don't cut them all at once, wait till you start layering. That way there will be no left over slices.
8. Layer the zucchini and tomates alternatly like roofing shingles. Layer them either in rows or in circles inwards.
9. Mix the crème fraîche with the whipping cream. Season it heavily with salt and pepper.
10. Pour the mixture over the casserole.
11. Bake the casserole for 40 minutes.
12. Grate the parmesan.
13. Scatter the parmesan over the casserole, 5 minutes before it is finished.

Bon appétit!!

Salmon terrine

This is really only something for fish fans. Cause they do taste rather strongly of salmon.
All in all it's ok but not exactly my favorite fish recipe.

On the plus side the preparation time is rather short. It has to stay for a few hours in the fridge. So it's something you can make a day before. Less stress.

And don't worry if there is some zucchini left. You can just eat it as it is. Tastes great.

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Salmon terrine

Zucchini Cover

2 zucchini, ca. à 200 g
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

1. Wash and dry both zucchinis.
2. Slice one zucchinis into fine round slices and the second zucchini lenghtwise into fine slices.
3. Put all the zucchini slices into a bowl. Douse them with the oil and season them with salt and pepper.
4. Put the bowl in the fridge and let the zucchinis marinate for at least one hour or up to one day.

Salmon Filling 

500 g salmon filet, fresh or frozen
200 g whipping cream
3 egg whites
2 tbsp creamed horseradish
5 tbsp chives
salt
pepper

! All ingredients should be cold
1. Wash and dry the chives. And cut them into small pieces.
2. Rinse and blot dry the salmon. It would be best if the salmon is a little bit frozen.
3. Cut the salmon into rough cubes.
4. Pulse the salmon, 100 g of the whipping cream, the egg whites, the creamed horseradish, salt and pepper in a food processor until it is a fine puree.
5. Whisk the remaining 100 g whipping cream until it's stiff.
6. Fold the whipped cream and the chives into the fish mixture. Taste for salt and pepper and season some more if necessary.

To Assemble

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/320°F.
2. Cover the bottom of a muffin pan with the round zucchini slices. Use the lenghtwise slices for the sides. If holes arise cover those with the round slices.
3. Pour the finished fish mixture into the prepeared hollows. Smoothe the mass.
4. Bake the terrine in a water bath for 35 minutes.
5. Let the muffin pan cool on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes. Afterwards topple the terrines on a big cutting board.
5. Put the terrines in a closed container. And let them cool in the fridge over night.

Bon appétit!!