Sizzling Squash

With all the squash coming out of our garden right now, I keep hearing this quote from Forrest Gump in my head:  "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried...." 

We've eaten squash almost every day now for a few weeks. We are growing zucchini, yellow summer squash, round zucchini, and patty pan squash.  So far, we've had squash kebabs, zucchini bread, zucchini soup, and sauteed squash.  I'm still looking for new ways to eat it (squash gumbo, anyone?), but the garden saute is an easy favorite. 

Ingredients:

1 round zucchini

1 yellow summer squash

1 patty pan

1 clove garlic

1 mildly hot banana pepper (seeds removed)

1 corno di toro pepper (or any sweet pepper)

Italian seasoning

olive oil

sea salt

Parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a saute pan (I love my new ceramic non-stick pan), heat a few tablespoons of olive oil on medium high.  Dice the squash, peppers and garlic.  Toss vegetables into the hot oil and add Italian seasoning and salt to taste.  Saute for about 10 minutes (or shorter if you like your veggies somewhat crisp).  Pour into a serving bowl and garnish with Parmesan cheese.

This recipe is also good with onions.  For a richer dish, replace some or all of the olive oil with butter (this browns and caramelizes the veggies a bit more).  I also highly recommend the Tuscany Blend of herbs and spices from the Oil and Vinegar store for this recipe (but unfortunately I'm out at the moment!).