We Tried The Thomas Keller Zucchini and Now We Want to Pair It with Everything

When gardens and produce stands are overruning with zucchini, you’ll requirement all the dish concepts you can discover to usage them up. After attempting the Thomas Keller zucchini approach, it’s now my go-to approach for preparing zucchini sides for whatever from grilled chicken to summery pasta meals.

Keep these oven-ready dishes useful to delightin all your zucchini

What Makes This Zucchini Special?

Because zucchini has such a high water material, preparing it can be challenging: all that water is launched throughout cooking, and the vegetable is left limp and mushy. Chef Thomas Keller’s method resolves this issue with a heavy layer of salt; it draws out excess wetness from the sliced zucchini halves while likewise including lots of taste. The veggies are then burnt and roasted upuntil really tender—but duetothefactthat the additional water hasactually been gottenridof, the zucchini holds its shape and has a more appealing texture.

Keller sets his roasted zucchini with a delicious, French Vierge Sauce, a fresh dressing made with diced tomatoes, herbs, olive oil and white whitewine vinegar that comes together in minutes.

Try roasted zucchini with more homemade sauces like these

How To Make Thomas Keller Zucchini

Nancy Mock for Taste of Home

This dish makes 6 zucchini halves that will serve 4 to 6 individuals. The zucchini requirement 30 minutes to drain priorto they’re prepared.

Ingredients

For the Vierge Sauce:

• 2 medium, vine-ripened tomatoes
• 2-1/2 tablespoons additional virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon champagne or white redwine vinegar
• 1/2 little shallot, carefully diced
• 1 teaspoon of minced, fresh basil
• Pinch of kosher salt (or more to taste)

For the zucchini:

• 3 medium zucchini
• Kosher salt
• Canola oil

Directions

Step 1: Make the Vierge sauce

Nancy Mock for Taste of Home

Use a paring knife to make an X in the bottoms of the tomatoes, then peel off the skins. Slice the tomatoes into quarters and disposeof the seeds and pulp. Dice the tomato flesh and location the pieces in a little bowl. Stir in the additional virgin olive oil, white redwine vinegar, diced shallots, minced basil and salt. Set the sauce aside to let the taste establish. The sauce can likewise be made up to a day ahead of time, kept in the refrigerator.

Step 2: Prepare the zucchini

Slice the zucchini in half length-wise. Use the idea of a sharp knife to cut a cross-hatch pattern into the flesh: the cuts must be deep adequate to let the salt permeate, however wear’t cut through the green skin.

Step 3: Salt and drain

Nancy Mock for Taste of Home

Sprinkle a generous layer of kosher salt over the cut surfaceareas of the zucchini halves, and usage your fingertips to gently press the salt to the surfacearea. Place the zucchini halves cut-side-down on a paper towel-lined tray or baking sheet. Let the zucchini drain for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Dry

Nancy Mock for Taste of Home

Use dry paper towels to pat the zucchini dry and to clean away the excess salt.

Step 5: Sear the zucchini

Nancy Mock for Taste of Home

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Pour simply enough canola oil into a big, oven-proof fryingpan to coat the bottom of the pan, and location the pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot and simply starting to smoke, location the zucchini cut side-down in the pan. Sear the veggies for 5 minutes; they must be perfectly browned however not burned.

(If your Vierge sauce is cooled, take it out of the refrigerator to come to space temperaturelevel while the veggies roast.)

Step 6: Roast

Move the pan of zucchini into the heatedup oven. (The zucchini must still be cut-side-down.) Roast the zucchini for about 30 minutes till they’re totally tender; if your zucchini is on the smallersized side, check them after 20 minutes or so. Remove them from the oven.

Step 7: Top with sauce and serve

Nancy Mock for Taste of Home

Use tongs and/or a spatula to thoroughly relocation the roasted zucchini to a serving meal. (They’ll be really soft so be cautious not to tear them.) Top each zucchini half with a coupleof spoonfuls of room-temperature Vierge Sauce, and serve them while they’re warm.

Here’s What I Thought

For me, this dish and technique resolve 2 essential zucchini issues: the mushy texture they get when prepared and the blandness of plain zucchini. The burning and oven actions offer the zucchini so much delicious, roasted vegetable taste and browning. And duetothefactthat water is gottenridof in the salting approach, the zucchini slabs puton’t fall apart even assoonas baked and tender. Plus, that salt soaks into the zucchini flesh and makes it actually tasty!

Keller’s Vierge Sauce is a yummy discovery as well; it looks comparable to a bruschetta topping however has tasty sweettaste from champagne vinegar. The bite of diced shallots is likewise mellowed by the vinegar. I customized Keller’s dish simply a little by switching fresh parsley for fresh basil—you simply can’t have summerseason tomatoes without a little fresh basil! You can likewise set roasted zucchini with fresh salsa, chimichurri sauce or a homemade vinaigrette.