Happy National Zucchini Day!
This recipe is dedicated to all of you gardeners out there who have zucchini and summer squash taking over your gardens; I know there are several of you!
With a great crunch from the panko breadcrumbs and an incredible flavor from the Parmesan, garlic, and Italian seasoning, these zucchini fries provide a wonderful new twist to this summertime staple. Dip them in your favorite marinara sauce and you have a perfect, easy side dish for dinner tonight. Enjoy!
Looking for another great way to use up your zucchini? How about some Italian Zucchini Hoagies?
Paula's Notes:
To ensure a crispy fry on all sides, I bake my zucchini on a cooling rack sprayed with cooking spray, which I place atop a foil lined baking sheet. The rack allows the air to circulate all around the fries, while the foil makes for easy clean up.
Zucchini Fries
Serves 3-4
Ingredients:
- 2 small zucchini - about 3/4- 1 lb total
- 2 tbls. flour
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 egg - beaten
- Marinara sauce - for dipping
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a cooling rack over the sheet.
- See "Paula's Notes" above.
- Clean and cut zucchini into large sticks - about the width of your pinky and 3 inches in length.
- In a large bowl whisk together panko, Parmesan, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Set aside.
- Put flour into a large plastic food storage bag or tupperware with a lid. Add zucchini sticks to flour and shake to coat. (This helps the egg stick to the zucchini.)
- Creating an assembly line, first dip zucchini stick in beaten egg, shaking off excess, then in breadcrumb mixture, pressing to coat with crumbs.
- Transfer to cooling rack and repeat with remaining sticks.
- Place zucchini in oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve alongside mariana sauce for dipping, and enjoy!
What exactly are panko bread crumbs? I think I will make these soon. Towards the end of the summer I tend to go nuts on the vegetables because I know they'll disappear soon.
ReplyDelete(Also, I'm clearly catching up on my blog reading...)
I hope you do, they are pretty tasty! Panko is a Japanese bread crumb that is especially crispy. If you can't find it, you can easily use regular bread crumbs. Panko just yields an extra crunch that I particularly like; it's great on chicken too when you want a "crispy chicken" without the deep frying.
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