ITALIAN ZUCCHINI CASSEROLE

Zucchini the most prolific veggie of summer.  It seems everywhere you can find zucchini during the summer.  And if you grow zucchini, you’re probably looking for dishes to make with it, and friends to share.  When my husband shared zucchini with a co-worker who is from a New Jersey Italian family, he shared his recipe for Italian Zucchini Casserole.  It’s so easy to make and quickly became a family favorite.

Italian Zucchini Casserole is fabulous straight out of the oven.  It’s also easy to freeze for enjoying throughout the winter.    It took some experimenting to figure out the best way to prepare the casserole for freezing.  We tried making the casserole and putting it directly in the freezer uncooked.  Zucchini is such a water dense vegetable, that prep and freeze resulted in a very soggy casserole.  We found that cooking the casserole for half of the recommend time and then freezing worked well.   Then simply thaw and bake the casserole until done.

INGREDIENTS:

Fresh zucchini–sliced

Parmesan cheese

Feta cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheese blend

Lawry’s season salt

Italian seasoned bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS:

When I first started making this recipe it really through me for a loop because it doesn’t have specific measurements.  I really like to follow a recipe the first time I make a new dish.  So I jumped in and followed the directions passed on to me.  It’s fabulous, flexible and easy to make!  And I’ve provided you with some additional tips and guidelines.

For a family of 4 I use an 8×8 baking dish.  I like to make a second batch in a disposable pan at the same time for freezing.

• Preheat oven to 350
• Spray pan lightly with cooking spray
• Place zucchini slices in pan in two layers
• Sprinkle with bread crumbs, season salt, and Parmesan cheese to taste
• Repeat layers of zucchini, bread crumbs, season salt and Parmesan cheese to near the top of the pan.
• Top with mozzarella cheese

This summer I mixed things up a bit with the modification below

• 2 layers of zucchini slices
• Sprinkle on Feta cheese and season salt
• 2 layers of zucchini slices
• Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese and season salt
• Top with mozzarella or Parmesan, Asiago, Romano cheese blend

I love the addition of Feta cheese!  The updated modification seems to reheat better.  I even made an entire 9×13 pan of it and it was great!

Some cell phone pictures I snapped as I put the dish together.

Bake for 30-45 minutes until zucchini is tender and cheese on top is browned.

To freeze: Bake 15 minutes, allow to cool completely before covering and freezing.  To cook:  Take casserole directly from oven and place in oven.  Bake 30-45 minutes until warmed through and cheese on top is browned.

For an interesting article on growing your own zucchini :   Growing Zucchini

blessings,

Julie