My Nonna has a huge garden in her backyard that she takes immaculate care of. I love visiting her in general, but especially more in the summertime because she always sends me home with bags of fresh vegetables from that very garden. She uses up every bit of those vegetables too – nothing goes to waste. One of the things she has an abundance of is zucchini. You can bet that if I go over there for lunch or dinner, we will be eating some sort of zucchini with the meal. She likes to bread and shallow fry them and then serve at room temperature. My favorite is when she fries up the zucchini flowers! I decided to go the healthy route and bake my zucchini instead of frying it. You can also call that the lazy way because I didn’t feel like standing over the stove turning 40+ pieces of zucchini in hot oil – I’d rather just throw them on a sheet pan and into the oven.
What is roasted garlic aioli you ask? It is a little taste of heaven mixed with that awful glob called mayonnaise. But really – aioli is a French sauce made with simple ingredients and a fancy name. For our purposes, let’s call it a flavored mayonnaise. Adrianna from A Cozy Kitchen made it to go with her zucchini fries and I thought it was an ingenious idea! We never have a dipping sauce to go with Nonna’s fried zucchini but that is also because we eat hers with a full meal. These zucchini fries can be a cute little appetizer or eaten as a meal all on their own! Who would do that now? I did.
Zucchini Fries (adapted from my Nonna and A Cozy Kitchen)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups seasoned Panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 5 zucchini and/or squash
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with nonstick foil and drizzle lightly with olive oil.
- Prepare zucchini by setting out 2 shallow bowls – one with the Panko breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese mixed together and one with the beaten eggs. Season both bowls with salt and pepper. Cut each zucchini into three pieces horizontally and then halve them to get “fries”. Dip each pieces into the egg mixture first, dripping off any excess, and then into the Panko/cheese mixture, coating all the way around. Once each piece is coated, place them neatly on your prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, turning each piece halfway through. Serve with aioli.
Roasted Garlic Aioli (adapted from A Cozy Kitchen)
Ingredients:
- 2 whole heads garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 sprig of diced chives, for garnish
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the top 1/3 of the garlic off, exposing the cloves but leaving the root-end intact. Discard small end. Place heads of garlic on a large piece of nonstick foil paper and pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the garlic completely in the foil. Bake directly on oven grates for 1 hour. Let cool.
- Squeeze out the roasted garlic cloves into a small food processor. Make sure to get every last bit! Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, mayo, salt and pepper to the garlic. Pulse until smooth. Transfer aioli to a dipping bowl and garnish with chives.
Tutti Mangia!
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