Skip to main content

Torquato's Zucchini "Cigars"

3.8

(3)

Torquato Innocenti, who sells his just-harvested, still-prickly zucchini — with flowers attached, a sure sign of freshness — offered me simple advice for the vegetable. Roast them whole in a "puddle" of oil and serve with basil. I bought a bag of his smallest (cigar-size) zucchini, pan-roasted them until browned sprinkled them with chopped basil — and loved the results.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Serves 4

Ingredients

8 to 10 freshest possible cigar-size zucchini, trimmed
2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
fine sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large heavy non-stick skillet combine zucchini and 1 tablespoon oil, shaking skillet to coat zucchini completely with oil. Cook zucchini over moderate heat, shaking skillet occasionally, until browned evenly, 20 to 25 minutes.

    Step 2

    Transfer zucchini to a platter and sprinkle with basil and salt and pepper. Drizzle zucchini with remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons oil and serve hot or at room temperature.

Cover of the cookbook Red, White, and Greens featuring rows of tomatoes, white onions, and broccoli rabe.
Reprinted with permission from Red, White, and Greens: The Italian Way With Vegetables, copyright 1996 by Faith Willinger. Buy the full book on Amazon.
Read More
In this lasagna, soft layers of pasta and béchamel are interspersed with a rich tomato sauce laden with hearty Mediterranean vegetables.
This fragrant salad uses bulgur wheat as its base, an endlessly versatile, slightly chewy grain that’s very popular throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
A punchy vinaigrette of preserved lemon and hot chile animates seared zucchini. A simple solution for summer's most prolific vegetable.
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
Salmoriglio is a Mediterranean sauce with herbs, garlic, and olive oil. In this version, kelp is used as the base of the sauce.
This summery sheet-pan dinner celebrates the bounty of the season and couldn't be simpler to make. Chorizo plays nicely with the salad, thanks to its spice.
This sauce is slightly magical. The texture cloaks pasta much like a traditional meat sauce does, and the flavors are deep and rich, but it’s actually vegan!
Spaghetti is a common variation in modern Thai cooking. It’s so easy to work with and absorbs the garlicky, spicy notes of pad kee mao well.