Simple Summer Supper

(Note: I hate the word “supper” but I needed it for the alliterative value here. It won’t happen again.)

I was tipped off to this pasta recipe by the Wednesday Chef, though originally it was published in the New York Times, way back in 1996, and revisited in 2007 in one of Amanda Hesser’s Recipe Redux columns. Like so many great summer meals, this is one of those “don’t bother making it unless your tomatoes are perfectly, lusciously ripe” recipes. Spaghetti is probably my least favorite pasta, so I went with the original suggestion of rigatoni.

Start in the morning. Before you go to work, mince up some garlic and mix it in a bowl with a lot of very good olive oil, and a handful of basil leaves, cut into ribbons. Ignore Hal McGee’s recent piece about the dangers of leaving food unrefrigerated for long periods of time, place a big plate on top of the bowl to keep out errant fruit flies, and go about your business for the day.

When you get home, chop up a pile of tomatoes and mix them into the infused oil. Then go do your laundry, or run to the store to get some rigatoni and fresh mozzarella, which is what you need next.

A couple of hours later, it’s dinner time. Boil a pot of water, salt it well, and cook the pasta al dente (as if there were any other way to make pasta). While it’s cooking, dice the mozzarella coarsely. Drain the pasta, pour it on top of the tomatoes, and then put the cheese on top of that. 

Here is where I made a small mistake: you should let the cheese melt a little from the heat of the pasta, but not for more than a couple of minutes. Then mix the pasta and the cheese together, leaving the tomatoes at the bottom of the bowl for now, and let it sit for another few minutes. If you let the cheese melt on top for, say, as long as it takes to run down to the laundry room, pull two loads out of the dryer, and fold them, the cheese will have melted beautifully–and then begun to cool again. When you get back upstairs, it will have reformed into one solid layer on top of the pasta. If you were making pizza, you’d be golden, but it makes it tricky to toss together. Which is what you do now, with the tomatoes and garlic and everything. 

Breaking up the cheese with tongs, or a knife, or your fingers, isn’t the most difficult thing in the world, but it slows you down significantly just as you ought to be sitting down to dinner. Which will be pretty damn good, no matter what. And it makes excellent leftovers the next day, eaten at room temperature.

Getting Creative with Squash

Months ago, it came up in conversation with my girlfriend that she doesn’t like zucchini. This was pretty early on in our relationship, and while it wasn’t the kind of dealbreaker statement that “I don’t like cheese” would have been (can you imagine?!), I knew even then that it would require some creativity this summer. If you belong to a CSA, you will know what I mean. Zucchini–and all forms of summer squash–arrives in 2-, 3-, and 4-pound piles. Weeks go by this time of year where I eat it every day. Hoping that C. would be joining me for at least a couple of meals a week, and knowing I can’t eat 4 pounds of squash myself before the next delivery, I figured I’d have to get creative.

The secret, it seems, is to hide the squash in a baked good (muffins, for example, with grated zucchini, cubes of cheddar, and lots of chopped basil), or to surround it with good flavors and cook it so minimally that the texture remains firm. This simple, noodle-less lasagne from Not Eating Out in New York is a perfect example of that second method.

You will need a couple of squash, some parmesan, an egg, a cup of ricotta, and a quarter cup of pesto. Also olive oil, salt & pepper, and some oregano if you like (which I do).

Slice the squash very thin–I’d’ve used a mandolin but with these sunbursts, it wouldn’t really have worked–and toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. If you’re using zucchini or another long squash, cut it lengthwise, so you have long, wide, noodle-shaped pieces

Mix together the ricotta with the egg, a little more salt & pepper, and the oregano.

Oil a baking dish (this one is either 8″ x 8″ or 9″ x 9″, which was the perfect size), and lay in the squash slices, spreading ricotta and pesto in alternating layers between them. Finish with the last of the pesto, and top with as much grated parmesan as you like. (And remember: when in doubt, double the cheese. Words to live by.)

Bake at 375F for about 15 minutes, until the cheese on top starts to brown just a little and it is more or less hot all the way through. The texture will still be pretty firm, the flavor is wonderfully intense, and it is surprisingly light for something with so much cheese. Maybe “light” isn’t the right word. But it isn’t overly rich. 

The next day, I brought the leftovers as part of a picnic dinner in Brooklyn Bridge Park, where there was a screening of Ghostbusters. As I’d hoped, C. really liked it–she even went for seconds. Though she confessed to me that in addition to not liking zucchini–something I am gradually proving to be untrue–she generally doesn’t like lasagne either. Attentive readers will note that the first dinner I made for her, before we were actually dating, was a vegetable lasagne. She ate that, too. Make of that information what you will. 

My notes on this recipe:

Not Eating Out uses a mix of zucchini and a long yellow summer squash. That would undoubtedly make for a neater lasagne that more closely resembles actual lasagne noodles, but these round sunburst worked very well, too. I just didn’t get the neat square edges that would be possible with long, rectangular slices of squash.

The only thing I’d change would be to salt the slices for 20 minutes or so, and drain them, before tossing with olive oil. There was a lot of liquid in the dish when it was cooked. Delicious liquid, to be sure, but I couldn’t help thinking it would be improved if it were a little less soggy. Or maybe I just needed some good garlic bread to accompany it. Since there is no pasta in this, it wouldn’t feel like such a carb overload as bread with normal lasagne… 

Design-Your-Own Quick Bread

Wow, February was kind of unpleasant. In between bouts of illness, I managed to strain my Achilles tendon and break a toe. Those sorts of health issues are the kind that prevent a girl from cooking the way she would really like to, because hauling groceries and standing at the stove when both your feet are iffy isn’t very pleasant, and neither is eating much of anything when you’ve got a stomach bug or a terrible fever. But now it is March, and we need never speak of the previous month again.* Moving on.

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was for a savory cheese and chive bread. She says that in France, it’s thought of as a cake more than a quick bread, which makes sense. Quick breads can generally be baked as muffins instead of a loaf, in which case they verge on cupcakes. But here’s the thing: I’m not wild about chives. I love garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, ramps (it’s almost ramp season!), but chives are somehow always wrong. 

Lucky for me, the header and marginalia on this recipe explain clearly that it is meant to be tweaked. Swap in other kinds of cheese, or some sundried tomatoes, different herbs, bacon, olives–whatever. My craving this week led me to figs. And then walnuts. And then blue cheese. Which led me to create this bread:

Start with some flour. I used a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat, because that’s how I roll. Whisk in the baking powder, salt, and pepper.

In another bowl, whisk together 3 eggs. Mix in some milk and olive oil. I found it easier to measure both in the same Pyrex together, with the added bonus that these gorgeous bubbles formed between the two layers.

Pour wet into dry and mix until just combined, then add in the add-ins. As Dorie says, you can use really whatever you like. The original recipe calls for both grated AND diced cheese, but I thought the volume and moisture of the fruit would compensate for ditching the grated, plus, even I don’t need THAT much blue cheese in one dish.

Mix it all up and then dump it in a buttered loaf pan. And then bake until it’s done, really. I wish I could say that I just ate this one slice and then ran out to share the rest with my neighbors or coworkers or the deshi at New York Aikikai or something, but that would be a blatant lie. I ate three slices and am not optimistic that the rest will survive until C. returns from her sojourn upstate. So I will just have to make it again.

*Truthfully, there were many good meals in February, including my latest turn hosting Cook Club (post tk), a dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar with S., and, as previously mentioned, a wonderful Valentine’s Day dinner with my very own valentine. But I like to pick and choose my anecdotes in order to tell the story I’ve chosen.

Fig-Walnut Bread with Blue Cheese

adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Makes one loaf or probably 10-12 muffins

1 c all-purpose flour

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

3 eggs

1/3 c milk

1/3 c olive oil

1 c dried figs, chopped

2 oz blue cheese, crumbled or chopped

1/3 c toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F and butter a loaf pan. (8 x 4 1/2 or 9 x 5, either is fine. Or a muffin tin, greased or lined.)

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the three eggs for a full minute, until they are foamy. Pour in the milk and olive oil and mix to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the flour and stir together. Add in the figs, cheese, and nuts, and stir just until everything is about uniformly distributed in the batter. Careful not to overmix.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan, smooth out the top, and bake for about 40 minutes. (Start checking earlier if your loaf pan is bigger. And if you’re making muffins, give them 20-25 minutes.) The loaf is ready when a thin knife comes out clean. 

Remove from the oven, let cool briefly, and then turn out onto a cooling rack. When it’s come to room temperature, it can be stored wrapped in foil or plastic wrap. Eat it within a few days or else freeze it.

Ceci n’est pas un gnoccho

Gnocchi are, traditionally, little dumplings made with potato, categorized in the pasta section of any menu. They are often thought of as being heavy, but made properly they are fluffy and wonderful. Well, even when they’re heavy and kind of dense, they’re still wonderful if you ask me, you just can’t eat as many.

These are not gnocchi, to my eye, though they are fluffy and wonderful, even if the photo doesn’t show that.

Dorie calls them gnocchi a la parisienne, which is fine, because they are not your Italian grandmother’s gnocchi. I never had an Italian grandmother, or a Parisian one, but I had a Viennese one. And truthfully, these dumplings remind me a lot of her farina dumplings, which she traditionally served in chicken soup.

Except that, then again, the finished dish is kind of like macaroni and cheese. So really, you’re not going to go wrong, no matter what you call it.

The dumplings are made by boiling butter and water together, then mixing in some flour, and then some eggs. Let the dough rest (or not), and then boil teaspoonfuls in salted water, in smallish batches.

Make a bechamel, butter & cheese* a shallow baking dish, cover the dumplings with sauce and grated cheese, and stick it in the oven. Delicious buttery cheesey gooiness will ensue. It doesn’t matter so much if your bechamel is perfectly smooth. It doesn’t matter what cheese you use (I went with a mix of parmesan and comte, which was one of Dorie’s suggestions). There is so much butter in this that it’s going to be amazing. Don’t skimp on the salt (at any step), and double up on the cheese if it makes you happy, which it should.

Things I learned making this recipe:

• my large-ish Corningware dish is approximately half the size of a 9″ pie plate
• next time I make farina dumplings, I’m going to use this same method

*by which I mean, coat the dish with butter and then sprinkle with grated parmesan, the better to prevent sticking. Many recipes refer to buttering and flouring a cake pan. This is better. Also good, for some recipes: sesame seeds.

Not Your Grandmother’s Flan

I have been noticing this month that many of the other participants in French Fridays* with Dorie were expressing slight anxiety about making this particular recipe. Some of them even conceded, after making it, that it was not really to their liking. I guess this is fine. Admittedly, there are a few things that even I do not enjoy eating (smoked fish, caviar, and tapioca are on the short list). But, really, this is eggs, pumpkin, cheese, and nuts. What’s not to like?

Ok, yes, it is blue cheese (gorgonzola, specifically), and I guess there are more people with an aversion to that particular variety than to, say, cheddar. I am quite impressed that so many people signed up for a project that included something they were so nervous about–and that so many followed through and made the damn thing. But for me, this is recipe a small piece of bliss. And incredibly simple to make.

Normal flan is not my thing. Give me a creme brulee any day of the week, but keep your soggy flans. Maybe if they all had the crunch of toasted walnuts on top, I’d be a flan fan.

For this savory one, you need some cooked winter squash, eggs, and milk. If you’ve got a can of pumpkin, wonderful. If not, or if you’d rather use up some of the excess of butternut you’ve been getting in your CSA box (ahem), roast it or steam it and stick it in the blender with the other ingredients.

Puree away, and then pour into buttered ramekins in a bain-marie. I gotta say, I don’t quite understand why Dorie has us put a piece of paper towel under the ramekins, but I kind of trust her not to steer me wrong.

Sprinkle on top some crumbled gorgonzola and chopped walnuts. Stick in a hot oven for as long as it takes. The size of my ramekins was not the size of Dorie’s, so the timing was not accurate, but it’s easy enough to see when they start to puff up and pull away from the sides, and also when a knife comes out clean. Serve with something green, just for the sake of appearances.**

*Yes, it still is a Friday thing. I was busy this week, hence a day late.
**By which I mean visual aesthetics. I would never order you to eat your vegetables. Plus, pumpkin is a vegetable already, so you’ve got that covered.

Apple Cheddar Take 2

I’ve tried this once before. But apples and cheddar are truly such a wonderful combination that I don’t think it’s redundant to do it again. And I’ve been dying to try this recipe for scones I saw on Leite’s Culinaria. (Apple pie with slices of cheddar slipped under the top crust will have to wait.) I will spare you the suspense and say that, as anyone might guess, futzing around with a generic muffin recipe can never result in a baked good that holds a proverbial candle to a recipe from Bill “Crust Master” Yosses. Furthermore, let us agree that a batch of these scones + a full pot of freshly brewed coffee = Saturday morning heaven.

I have also expounded on the brilliance of Bill Yosses before. This recipe comes from his new cookbook, which is written with the wonderful Melissa Clark, of the Times‘ A Good Appetite column. And as before, Chef Bill has some tricks up his sleeve that make all the difference in the world. To start with, peel, core, and slice the apples–and then bake them for 20 minutes, just long enough so they’re dry to the touch.

Let them cool while you mix up the rest of the batter.

Add the apples to the bowl and stir until just combined.

Spread out the dough on a floured work surface, and roll it into a rough circle. Slice it up into 6 wedges, and spread them out on a baking sheet.

Brush them with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, then bake for 30 minutes at 350F, and you’re done.

It should be noted that scones are ideally consumed on the day they are baked, so be prepared to share with some friends, or to eat a lot of scones yourself. Either way, you can’t really lose.

Improv Night

Q: After your pizza party, what can be made with the leftover tomato sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and caramelized onions, that also uses up some kale and winter squash?

A: Lasagne.

As I may have mentioned in the past, my mom makes fantastic lasagne. (Family tradition holds that it’s the best we’ve ever tasted, every time.) It’s a pretty traditional version, with tomato sauce, ground beef, a little sausage, and a lot of shredded mozzarella and ricotta. I’ve never attempted to make her recipe, mostly because my instinct is that it would not live up to the standard. So instead I’ve learned to make vegetarian lasagne. Usually it’s with Swiss chard and roasted eggplant (a Deborah Madison recipe, of course), but that’s not what was in the fridge this week. So I decided to be brave and wing it. 

First, I blanched and chopped some kale (stems removed). Then, I mixed that up with the ricotta, an egg, and the caramelized onions. 

I bought some sheets of fresh pasta at my favorite Italian market, which were about as wide as my baking dish, and quite a bit longer. I trimmed them to be the right size before parboiling for a minute, only to be reminded that things get bigger when they’ve absorbed some water. So my pasta sheets wound up a bit too big; I decided not to care.

The order of the layers doesn’t really matter, I don’t think. I started with a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish, because that’s how mom does it. Then a layer of pasta, followed by some of the kale/ricotta mixture.

Next, some roasted squash (acorn) mashed up with chopped fresh sage. 

Then thin slices of fresh mozzarella, a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce, and a generous handful of grated parmesan. Repeat, with three layers of filling sandwiched between 4 layers of noodle. Top the last pasta layer with tomato sauce and parmesan, then cover with foil and bake.

Let it be said that I don’t actually recommend making this dish unless you have several of the elements already on hand. It would be preposterous to make a batch of tomato sauce just for this occasion, or to caramelize onions (which takes a good hour to do it properly). And then there’s the kale-blanching and squash-roasting. But damn, I do love lasagne. And when you have a sort of random day off from work, is there really a better thing to do than to linger in the kitchen and cook up a dish of it in a very leisurely fashion? C. and I enjoyed it greatly, with some sage-garlic bread, followed by almost-the-last pink peppercorn ice cream.

Kale and Winter Squash Lasagne

4 sheets of fresh pasta, or 12 individual lasagne noodles
2 c tomato sauce
1-1 1/2 c ricotta
1/2 lb mozzarella (fresh is awesome, but dried and grated works just as well)
1 egg
1 lb kale
1/4 c caramelized onions
2 acorn squash, roasted
grated parmesan
fresh sage
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Parboil the pasta and put in a bowl of cool water to hold while you get the rest of the elements together. (Or, alternately, use no-boil lasagne, which is practically all you can find these days anyway.)
Remove the stems from the kale and blanch the leaves in salted water. Drain and chop coarsely. Mix together with the ricotta, egg, and onions. Season with salt & pepper.
Chop up the sage finely and mix it up with the roasted squash.
If using fresh mozzarella, slice it as thin as you can.
Pour a bit of tomato sauce in the bottom of your (9″ x 12″) lasagne pan. Add a layer of noodles, followed by layers of the kale/ricotta, the squash mixture, the mozzarella, more tomato sauce, and a handful of grated parmesan. Slap on another noodle layer, squish it down a little to get out any air, and repeat the layers. And again. On top of the final layer of pasta, pour the last of the tomato sauce and some more grated parmesan.
Cover with tin foil (tented, if you can, so the sauce and cheese don’t just stick to it) and bake for 35-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes.
Serve, traditionally, with garlic bread.

Top Your Own Pizza Party

This past Sunday, L., M., P., and our respective +1s came over for the latest round of Cook Club. We had all semi-tacitly agreed that it would be a more casual affair this time, and for whatever reason, I settled on making pizza. I made a bunch of antipasti/salads, prepped the toppings, made the dough, went a little crazy at Murrays’, and let everyone do their own thing. 

The pre-pizza spread: kidney beans with shallots and parsley; pan-seared shishito peppers; Treviso potato salad (with radicchio, from Lynne Rossetto Kasper); Sweet and Sour Grilled Pumpkin (which I’ve made before); Shredded Collard Greens with Walnuts and Pickled Apples; and sweet-tart salad of basil, sorrel, and apple (also from Rossetto Kasper–this was the star of the show, I think).

Really, though, the point is the pizza. Because of the limited amount of space in my oven, and also in my kitchen, we made our pizzas in pairs. But pizza only takes 10 minutes to cook (which I know to be a fact, from my summer working at Panzone’s) and cheese retains heat better than just about anything, so we all still ate at roughly the same time. I’d made pesto, and tomato sauce (from the many pounds of tomatoes A. and I picked up at Stoneledge), roasted peppers, made “oven-candied” tomatoes, cooked up some sausage, caramelize some onions, and bough pepperoni and mushrooms.

Enough with the preamble. Here are our beautiful creations:

For dessert, we had cookies and ice cream. There had been a request for a repeat of the pink peppercorn ice cream I made back in May, and who am I to deny someone ice cream? It’s a pretty basic vanilla custard base, with the addition of a tablespoon of ground pink peppercorns (separate post to come on that, probably). And then when you make ice cream, you wind up with a lot of unused egg whites–so I was pleased to find a recipe for something called Chocolate Puddle Cookies on 101 Cookbooks that requires a lot of them.

More photos of everything here.

It was, as always, a lovely evening in wonderful company. I am so, so glad that we started Cook Club. I think we could probably be eating take out and drinking box wine (not to knock box wine–there are some really good ones out there) and have just as good a time together, but thankfully, we have the option to have homemade meals with good friends, and who could ask for more than that?

Cheesy Apple Goodness

There are people who put cheddar cheese into their apple pies. I’m not really sure if it’s worked into the crust, or grated into the filling, or just hidden in between the layers, like that surprise smear of wasabi that often clears out your sinuses when you aren’t paying close attention to your sushi. Whichever way it’s done, it’s not how I make apple pie. The only apple pie for me is my mom’s, known as Fishmarket Apple Pie (or sometimes Birthday Pie, because that is what there is for my birthday, as cake is for people who don’t know better). And you cannot put cheddar into that pie. Trust me.

The truth, though, is that I do not generally make apple pie at all, because my mom does such a great job that there is no point in getting in on that game myself. I do, however, get in the muffin game. Often. And somehow I got it into my head the other week that there needed to be some apple cheddar muffins in my life.

I started with Deborah Madison’s cheddar muffin recipe, figuring that if you can add a cup of fresh corn kernels (one of her suggested variations), then adding a cup of chopped apples in more or less (more) kernel-sized pieces should work, too. In addition to that, you’ll need some flour, cornmeal, baking powder, grated cheddar, eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and honey. Oh, and some fresh ground pepper, which was sort of an afterthought, but I’m really glad I included it.

Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, and have the cheese and the apple bits ready. The egg/milk mixture goes into the flour/cornmeal, and is fully combined. Then stir in the grated cheese. For this, I think the sharpest cheese available is best, to contrast with the tart sweetness of the apples. And it should be grated on the coarse side.

Next, in go the apples. I prefer to leave the skins on, especially if they’re red apples, because it’s prettier. And on that subject: Macintoshes would be great. These were (I think) Macoun. Granny Smiths or something else tart would be lovely, also.

Then you just need to pour it into your muffin tin. I always prefer to use paper liners, on account of being lazy. Buttering and flouring muffin tins is tedious work, and cleaning them out is even more so. But do whatever you like.

Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. (The one thing I’ve noticed about my beloved Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is that I always need to round down the temperature and/or cooking time on muffin recipes. I suspect that maybe my muffin tins are a bit smaller than Ms. Madison’s, but it is a consistent adjustment I always have to keep in mind, and it’s easy enough if I actually remember.)

Apple Cheddar Muffins
adapted from Deborah Madison
Makes 10-11 muffins, depending on the size of your tin

1 1/4 c flour
1/2 c cornmeal
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 eggs
1 c milk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
2 c grated sharp cheddar
1 c chopped apples

Preheat the oven to 375F. Prepare a muffin tin, either with paper liners or by buttering & flouring.
Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix up the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and honey. Grate the cheddar coarsely and chop up the apples into pieces, no larger than 1/2″ cubes.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until just combined. Add in the cheddar, and then the apples.
Spoon into the muffin tin, and bake for 20-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Summer of My Greek Zucchini Pie

I don’t actually know what zymaropita means. According to a cookbook I was snooping around in at my now-favorite used bookstore, it is a zucchini pie, of sorts, made with cheese and cornmeal. It ought to be made with a very specific type of cheese, though, called myzithra, which is not readily available in this country, much to the dismay of E. (Though maybe these things are easier to find in Seattle?) So the author kindly supplies a combination of more common dairy products that approximates the flavor and texture.

Specifically, she suggests goat’s milk feta (mine is a goat/cow blend), whole milk ricotta, and Greek yogurt (this is Icelandic, which you might not have known is a style of yogurt–very similar to Greek, though).

To which you add a few cups of grated zucchini, after tossing them with salt and letting it drain in a colander for an hour.

Mix them together thoroughly, and add some olive oil.

Genius that I am, I forgot the olive oil. I don’t think the pie/cake/whatsit was irreparably harmed, but  I’d recommend following the actual recipe next time.

Either way, then add some eggs and milk.

Mix in some cornmeal, and spread in an oiled baking dish. Theoretically this should be something round, so you can still call it a pita, which is Greek for “pie.” Obviously, I went in a different direction.

Bake for about 40 minutes at 375F. Serve with a salad of tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and feta, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Just like the lady doing the demonstration at the Union Square Market, because kitchen inspiration comes from all directions.

Zymaropita (cheesy zucchini cornbread)
Adapted from The Glorious Foods of Greece: Traditional Recipes from the Islands, Cities, and Villages

3 c coarsely grated zucchini
1/2 T salt
6 oz feta
3 oz ricotta
1/2 c Greek yogurt (or other strained yogurt)
1/4 c olive oil
3 eggs
1/2 c milk
salt & pepper
2+ c cornmeal

Mix zucchini & salt, place in a colander, and let drain for about 1 hour. Squeeze out as much water as you can.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Combine the cheeses & yogurt in a large bowl. Mix in the grated zucchini and olive oil. Season with salt & pepper.
Beat together the eggs & milk, then add to the zucchini mix.
Slowly add cornmeal, incorporating about 1/2 cup at a time, until you have a wet dough.
Oil a 9″x13″ baking dish. Press the dough into the dish and bake 40-45 minutes, until golden brown. Alternately, use a 9″ round cake pan, and bake for more like 50-60 minutes.