Sautéed Zucchini (Courgette)

We hit the Farmer's market in Waltham this morning and one of my treasured finds was a mondo zucchini. In this day and age of baby vegetables it is getting harder and harder to find these big ones, the beasts that lie hidden under a giant zucchini plant leaf until one day you lift one up and BAM(!) a 2 pound zucchini.
My Mom is the person who got me addicted to cooking zucchini this way. Sometimes in the heat of the summer I will make this and have it for dinner with a glass of rose, no sides, no decoration, no sauce, just sautéed zucchini. I consider it better than chocolate cake or candy, really.
Now as big zucchinis go, this one isn't really like some of the mother's we get later in the season. Up in Maine at the farmer's market mom and I always have a laugh. The tiny teeny baby ones will be selling for 1.50 or 2.00 per pound and then we will pick up a beast. The farmer will apologise and say how sorry he is and we could have it for oh, 1 dollar. We keep our faces down, eyes averted, pay our dollar and walk away laughing hysterically. A buck! And the Brit? He wouldn't touch this with a ten foot barge pole.

Sautéed zucchini (Courgette)
Mondo Zucchini, rinsed and cut into discs about 1/2 inch thick.
All-purp flour
salt and freshly ground pepper
paprika
vegetable, canola or olive oil

Mix spices(quantities to your liking) into flour in a wide bowl, cut zucchini disks and wait a few minutes. It will ooze a bit of liquid that helps the flour to adhere.
I tend to use an electric frying pan for this since I can maintain the temp better as well as do a large quantity at once. If you don't have one a good heavy bottomed skillet will do.
I set the skillet between 300 and 350. Add oil. When it gets shimmery hot add the disks.

Each side takes about 8 minutes. You want brown spots and the center of the zucchini to get soft.
Remove the slices and place on a warmed platter. When they are all done I sprinkle them with some sea salt. Mmmmmmm.

Comments

[Blue Witch]

*excited*
I hadn't found this bit of you before...

Looks scrummy. I'll try this if we ever get enough sun to get the courgettes growing as they should be!

[Mental Office Girl]

Thank you for the beautifully illustrated recipe. This will certainly give me another way to rid myself of the, Mondo zucchini I've got growing in my yard. Monsters!

[mr mcmuffin]

I love those giant courgettes, but rarely see them anymore. Urban living, I guess, means that we can only get uniform sized courgettes, and those are usually quite small. We got some amazing monsters from Mrs McMuffin's parents' neighour's garden on year. They were fantastic.

[Karan]

This works well with the little ones too...Yum!!

[Janet]

That's also the only way I like eggplant, thinly sliced. Mmmmm, crunchy!