Yesterday, Jackie Monroe pulled up to the restaurant in her battered farm pickup with the cage sitting on the flatbed, bringing something that always signals the arrival of deep summer for me: the first local zucchini of the year. We cooked it up and tasted it right away. It was toothsome, firm yet full of juice, and it had that clean corn flavor I associate with just-picked zucchini.
Most restaurants serve zucchini year-round, usually julienned and undercooked as the interchangeable vegetable that’s served with all the entrees. Off-season zucchini, which usually comes from Mexico, has a woody core that turns slimy when you cook it. It has little flavor, save for the aftertaste of bitterness that comes from the zucchini sitting in storage for weeks, allowing the bitter enzymes in the vegetable to develop.
I first learned to cook with zucchini in a kitchen in New York in the middle of winter. The chef had us cut around the core and use only the peel and a little bit of the flesh — what a waste!
Every year when I taste that first, delicious local zucchini, I promise myself only to use summer squash when it’s fresh and local.
One of the best ways to celebrate the first zucchini of the year is to make a refreshing chilled soup out of it, a bright green zucchini and basil soup with a hint of anise to bring out the flavor of the zucchini and accent the fresh basil. You sweat some onions, add the zucchini, sweat it down, deglaze with white wine, add water and chicken broth, finish with spinach and basil, blend the soup, ice it down and add a splash of anise-flavored liqueur.
Note: Monroe Organic Farms of Kersey is the oldest organic farm in the state. You can find its zucchini at the Boulder Farmers Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
John Broening cooks at Duo and Olivea restaurants in Denver.
Chillded Zucchini Soup
The best way to clean zucchini is to immerse it a bowl of warm water, rub the zucchini with your hands, then rub it dry with a towel. And when blending a hot liquid, never fill the blender more than half full. Quickly pulse the soup a few times before blending. This makes about 3 quarts, enough for six plus leftovers.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion
6 cups zucchini, rinsed and sliced 1/3-inch thick
1/3 cup white wine
3 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup spinach leaves
1 cup basil leaves
1-2 tablespoons anise flavored liqueur, such as Sambuca, Pernod or Anisette
Salt and pepper
Pinch cayenne
Directions
In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil and sweat the onions with a pinch of salt for about 10 minutes. Add the zucchini, toss to coat with the oil, add another pinch of salt and sweat until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the wine; boil 2 minutes and add the water and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and basil and cook 1 minute. Transfer the soup to a blender and blend in batches until smooth.
Place the pureed soup in an ice bath and chill. (You can chill the soup faster by whisking it every minute or so.)
Add the liqueur and season the soup with salt, pepper and cayenne.
