Just in Time for Summer. Zucchini Butter!

No butter needed.

This is a great quick preparation for carnivores, pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans. Gluten free. Dairy free. And in the next month or so, they will be everywhere! Can go on toast, pasta, fish, meat, in eggs….getting the picture? 4 ingredients unless you really want to jazz it up. I bring you ZUCCHINI BUTTER. To make, you will need

Note. One of the ingredients is a piece of equipment. That everyone has. In some way, shape or form.

To make. Grate your zucchini on your box grater using the largest holes. If you want to break out the food processor, just pulse a few times to get the size shown below. Do not over process, you are not making soup, you are making butter. It should be mentioned that any color of zucchini or summer squash can be used. I think, as the product arrives at markets or in stores, the smaller varieties would be better because they are sweeter but do not let lack of small vegetables deter you from making this. Your grated product should look like this.

Chop shallot and add to zucchini bowl. No shallots? Use onion. Use scallion. Use garlic, but sparingly. You want to taste zucchini.

Heat your pan, and after heated, add olive oil. If you are using non stick, add olive oil and heat pan at the same time. Toss in zucchini and shallots, salt and pepper and let cook down. This is halfway through the process.

The water from the zucchini will cook out and the zucchini will soften. The edges may get a bit brown just continue to toss, the whole process will not take more than 15 minutes.

This is the finished product. Allow to cool and you will see that your zucchini has become spreadable, you get it, just like butter! And that’s all there is to it. If it needs more salt, add salt. If you like it a bit more fiery, add red pepper flakes or my favorite Calabrian Chili past. Want basil? Just throw it in. More acidic? A squeeze of lemon. The world is your zucchini!

Now what? Below is the simplest way to use. Toast a piece of bread and spread the butter. Eat.

I made breakfast with some leftover pasta and threw a bit of the butter in the eggs and I give you this.

And there you have it. Keep it in the fridge and remove just before spreading. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

LAS TAPAS SOBRAS

Leftover Tapas for breakfast.

I decided to restart my blog as a New Year’s resolution and then promptly boarded a plane and went to Spain where the rains fall on the plains. So posting from Madrid while my sister and BIL let me crash at their pad, I bring you my first night’s dinner leftovers (sobras) meal for breakfast.

First of all, if you have never been to Spain (which I have not), the first thing that becomes evident is the price of dining out. In three words, after one day, I tell you it is very, very affordable. Ok, more than three words but you get my point. For my first meal in Madrid, I wanted tapas. So my brilliant sister did some research and we came up with a place called La Casa del Abuelo (plug for the place). We ordered a myriad of dishes ( 7 in total) with 4 glasses of rio Tinto — 81 Euros which is roughly 85 dollars.

Missing from this photo are the grilled shrimp, the mushrooms, and the fried calamari. What you see here from top left and clockwise are a plate of chorizo, a plate of Iberian salami, patatas bravas and croquettas stuffed with Iberian ham. The bread came with the meal, and let me tell you, dripping that bread into the wine was like having another course! We had leftovers and today I used them for breakfast.

When I say today, I mean yesterday. Any day. I heated the salami, the mushroom and the patatas braves in a pan. Scrambled 2 eggs. Added S+P. My BIL who does not eat eggs with yolks wanted to know if there was any more. As an aside, you do not have to go to Madrid to make an omelet. Any good leftover stuff works. But this was really good because of the shared meal in Madrid the night before with my sister and BIL.