Zucchini purée

I have a weakness for puréed vegetables, which I think are usually called baby food. But as I remain confident in the tastiness of these things, I also think that getting someone else to eat them is more a feat of marketing than of anything else. To that end, I won’t recommend opening your next dinner party by mentioning that you have a weakness for puréed vegetables, which is what I did once. Everyone looked at me funny, and no one ate them. But this aside, puréeing vegetables is a good way to use up their less sightly or buoyant bits, and who likes waste anyway?

Accordingly, then, the not-too-tough stems or unused florets of broccoli or cauliflower can become a gratin de choufleur (or whatever) when puréed and showered with a bit of grated cheese or breadcrumbs before being placed in a very hot oven to brown and crunchify their upper parts. I guess everyone (or at least our First Family) calls a spinach purée ‘creamed spinach,’ even if there isn’t any cream. Sweet potato pie is one of the greatest pureés there is. (No, it isn’t a dessert.) Carrots and winter squashes make lovely purées, too. Just call them something else.

I can’t recommend serving vegetable mush as a main dish, but it is a nice and very cheap way to snuggle vegetables into what might otherwise be a plant-light meal. I’ve served this one under fish to great effect, and I’m sure it would be lovely with roast chicken as well. Above, I’d served it under a provençal-style duck (crusted in fennel, rosemary, thyme, lavender, and cooked like so) and next to some roasted radishes, because everyone is doing that these days (by which I mean, my friend Lexi and The New York Times, my two favorite sources for what’s cool in the food world). The purée itself was made from the leftover bits of some zucchini I talked to you about several days ago. I make plenty of dud dinners, but I think this pairing might be worth remembering. The duck was rich as it always is and aromatic from the herbs + spices, the zucchini offset that with its lightness, and seemed to highlight the lavender involved quite well. The radishes were there to provide an earthy counterpoint, since roasted they’re a bit more like turnips than the raw radishes + butter we may know better. I derive what may be excessive pleasure from planning menus and reading those of others, so I’m going to try leaving mine below for a couple of posts. I hope they’re helpful, or at least a little entertaining. We’ll see, I suppose.

… And, completely unrelated to menu planning or whirled veg: Do you cook or bake with lavender? If so, what do you do with it? I’d love to know!

Zucchini purée

Adapted from a Patricia Wells recipe, I think.

Zucchini or its parts (about .5 lbs/250 g/4 whole ones)  | 1 small garlic clove |  olive oil  |  salt  |  ½ lemon

Chop the zucchini roughly. If you can make all pieces approximately the same size, that would be great. Smash and peel the garlic clove.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat. Have a lid ready. Add about 1 T of olive oil to the pan. When it is hot, toss in the zucchini + garlic clove. Sprinkle with salt. Clap on the lid so that the zucchini will sear a little on the bottom and steam everywhere else. After 2-3 minutes, take off the lid and stir from time to time. After it is soft, perhaps 7 more minutes, pluck out the garlic clove and scrape everything else into a food processor. Add a squeeze of the lemon and process until smooth. Taste and adjust salt + lemon as necessary.

Serves 4

For dinner:  dates + almonds |  duck provençal, zucchini purée, roasted radish  |  salad + cheese  |  fresh strawberries