Welcome to another zucchini recipe, friends!  As you may have heard, we are growing a lot of it this year, and I’m proud to report that we’re keeping up quite nicely!  This week alone we harvested 18 zucchinis from our three plants, and I also had a little pile of pattypan and yellow crookneck squash from my CSA box (we’re drowning in squash over here!).  Because today was a work from home day, I had some time to meal prep and cook between calls.  I chopped up the squash and roasted them at 350F for about an hour until tender, added lemon, mozzarella, and basil, and called it lunch!

Roasting helped make the squash super tender and sweet, which was a nice match with the acidic lemon juice and creamy mozzarella.  Roasting is also a great method to cook a lot at once, so I have plenty of leftovers for the rest of this week’s lunches.  I added the squash with lemon juice into a bigger container to store for later, and will add the basil and mozzarella fresh as needed throughout the week.  This will result in nice, lemon-y zucchini without any sad, watery mozzarella or brown, limp basil. 

In terms of roasting, all of the squash that I tested held up pretty well, although the zucchini and the yellow crookneck squash did tend to get a little soft and on the mushier side.  The pattypans held their shape great and had a nice tender but not mushy texture, so I would definitely recommend this as a candidate for roasting if you happen to have a lot of pattypans on hand.  You could also certainly make this with only one type of summer squash as well, I just happened to have three types on hand that I needed to use up!

I hope this helps inspire you to make more summer squash dishes throughout the summer!  This is a great option for meal prep and used up 3 full-sized squash and 6 pattypans, so it definitely put a dent in my supply for the week!  Recipe down below along with some photos!  Happy squash-ing, friends!

Roasted Summer Squash Salad with Mozzarella and Basil

Ingredients:

• 2 crookneck yellow squash
• 1 medium-large zucchini
• 6 pattypan squash
• 1 medium red onion
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp salt
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• 12 pieces of bite-sized mozzarella balls
• 20 leaves of fresh basil, cut into thin strips (chiffonade)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Chop all squash into large bite-sized pieces, and place on a clean sheet pan.  Split the onion in half (lengthwise, cutting through the root end), and remove the outside peel.  Place onion on the sheet pan.  Add olive oil and salt to the squash and onions, toss to combine.
3. Place the sheet pan in the oven to roast the vegetables for 1 hour.
4. After roasting, veggies should be tender and lightly golden brown on the bottoms.  Allow to cool on the sheet pan for about 10 minutes, or until cool enough to touch.
5. Once cooled, transfer all of the squash to a bowl, and the onion halves to a cutting board.  Chop the onion into rough dice and add to the bowl with the squash.
6. Add lemon juice to the bowl and stir to combine.
   1. If using this for a meal prep option, stop at this point and refrigerate.  Add the mozzarella and basil when ready to serve.
7. Slice mozzarella balls in half and add to the bowl with the squash and onions.  Thinly slice basil and add to the bowl as well.  Stir to combine.
8. Serve immediately and enjoy!

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