So by Saturday afternoon I was faced with the question of what to do with all of my free zucchini. There’s always zucchini bread, but who hasn’t eaten that? I wanted to try out some new, fresh-tasting healthy summer fare. Flipping through my cookbooks, I discovered that most of the zucchini recipes suggested grating zucchini into fatty bread batter, deep frying zucchini, or stuffing it with meat.

Now I have to admit, I dream about having a cooking show. More the Naked Chef than Emeril. I talk to myself, and my bewildered roommate, while I cook. "Ah let us throw in a little bit of this, or that. It will be divine!" And on my imaginary cooking show I have a few goals. I want to be able to identify each ingredient I use. If I can get it fresh, all the better. I would rather use fresh tomatoes than canned (unless I can them myself, but that’s another story). I want pesticide free meats, veggies, and dairy. And I want it to be simple enough that the real flavor comes out. I also want all my recipes to taste good and be incredibly healthy. Since none of the recipes in my cookbooks sounded at all appealing, or fit with my policy of healthy simple eating, I decided to experiment.

So I began to work with what I had in the kitchen: tomatoes, herbs, garlic and a family history of good cooks. I turned on a fan, opened a beer and got to work.