Summer squash 1 (easy) way for 3 (delicious) dishes!

Summer squash, garlic, onion, rosemary, and oregano

July is awash with summer squash, pretty much no matter where you live. Growing up in Vermont, I remember seeing baskets of green and yellow long necks lining country roads towards the end of summer with desperately scrawled “free” signs above them.  Neighbors would reel you in with offers of dinner, then insist that you take some squash with you when you left. By August, everyone is sick of this delicious, abundant, and multi-faceted vegetable.

I religiously wait for them to come into season, and when they do I just can’t get enough—summer squash is light, remarkably versatile, cheap, and easy to work with. If you think you don’t like it but have never tried it fresh (i.e. straight from the farm, not from Peru via your local grocer) you have to give it another try. It grows as fast as weeds, and lends itself really well to almost any flavor you’d like to throw at it. You can think of it as the tofu of vegetables, except less bland and overrated. Summer squash is high in just about every nutrient you’ve ever heard of—including vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B6, C, K, Omega 3 fatty acids, folate, manganese…the list goes on—it’s so good for you that you that it makes the cut for the World’s Healthiest foods list.

If this is your first foray into summer squash, I applaud your willingness to give it a try!  This week, we’re doing squash 1 easy way for 3+ dishes. Perfect for new cooks and busy people everywhere! “But wait”, you say “won’t I get sick of all this squash?” Oh my god will you ever!  And that’s good, because once it’s gone, you can’t have it again until next summer—at least not the good stuff. You can find foreign-grown squash in every store across the country all year round, but it only resembles its locally grown cousin in looks—certainly not in nutrients or in taste. I find out of season summer squash to be mealy, bitter, and dry. A good summer squash is fragile, bruises easily, and holds the perfect amount of moisture and elasticity in its flesh for cooking quickly on high heat—the same traits make them perfect for the grill as well!

Summer squash pasta Parmesan

Of the 3 simple dishes I’m posting today, Jeremy’s pick for dinner was summer squash pasta Parmesan.  This week I’ll also serve squash fajitas with garlic mayo and cotija cheese, and polenta with sauteed squash (and any other veggies I have lying around, no doubt.)   Though I’m not profiling them tonight, this same preparation of squash is perfect for a tamale filling, and is an excellent in savory puff pastries.