#56 - Zucchini Patties

Something that we've been wanting to make for quite some time now are these tasty fried zucchini patties that Emily's grandmother makes. Normally when she cooks up a batch, they're gone in just a few minutes, so we figured if we could make them ourselves, we'd have better odds of tasting one.

Zucchini Patties

From Bebe Renda
We've gotten some nice zucchini from Farmer Randy before (we think we used one in our ratatouille), but nothing compares to the giant zucchini you find in New Jersey. Emily just got back from a weekend with her family, and she brought home this behemoth.
This is actually a pretty easy recipe to make. Once you have your zucchini, you chop it and boil it; and magically, the insides fall out, and you're left with these beautiful little arcs.
Then, you mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl, spoon little dollops into a pan, and fry them up.
Then you eat them all really quickly. They're tasty hot, they're tasty at room temperature, and we don't know about anything else because they don't last long enough to be eaten cold.
Find yourself a baseball bat-sized zucchini and make these.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
• 3 large eggs
• 2 medium zucchini, sliced into small pieces
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 sprigs basil, ripped into small pieces

Preparation

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add zucchini pieces and boil until soft, about 7 to 8 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, mix eggs, bread crumbs, garlic, and basil.
3. Add the cooked zucchini into the bread crumb mixture, and use hands to mix together.
4. Add grated cheese.
5. If the mixture is too dry, add another egg. If it's too wet, add more bread crumbs.
6. Cover the bottom of a medium skillet with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.
7. Spoon small to medium-sized balls of mixture into the pan.
8. Cook patties on one side until lightly browned; then flip and continue cooking until browned.
9. Drain on a rack covered with paper towels.