11 Zucchini Recipes Our Readers Love

Few ingredients are as synonymous with summer bounty as zucchini. As the season progresses, supermarkets, farm stands, and home gardens fill up with this summer squash, challenging even the most proficient home cook to keep thinking of creative ways to put it to good use. So, to help keep things fresh, here are 11 New York Times Cooking reader-favorite recipes that use this seasonal workhorse.

A way to guarantee a recipe gets thousands of five-star reviews? Requiring only one pot, it offers an easy yet clever method of cooking pasta. Alexa Weibel does both here, cooking shell-on pasta and zucchini cubes in a shallow broth of vegetable broth, mascarpone, and garlic, which is reduced and emulsified into a satiny sauce.

strung and Grilled Zucchini is one of the simple pleasures of summer. While great on its own, it’s even better paired with chives and served with lightly caramelized sticky salmon with a tare or basting sauce. Kay Chun brushes the fish and vegetable skewers with the soy sauce and garlic sugar for maximum sweet and savory flavor in each bite.

Recipe: Yakitori-Style Salmon With Spring Onions And Zucchini

The recipe for these Turkish fritters, which Elaine Louie adapted from chef Aytekin Yar in 2009, is among the highest-rated zucchini dishes on the New York Times Cooking Database, and for good reason: They have feta, fresh with grated summer squash, chives and fresh dill, and very crisp all over.

Recipe: zucchini pancakes

One of the many reasons to love this Mildly Sweet Quick Bread recipe from Alison Roman is that it makes two loaves, so you can bake one for now and one for the freezer. Or maybe one for breakfast as-is, one for dessert with a handful of chocolate chips sprinkled into the batter? The choice is yours.

Sarah Jampel combines hearty garden and pantry staples in this satisfying dinner salad best enjoyed outdoors. Readers can’t help but sing the praises of her: “One of the best recipes I’ve made recently,” wrote one reader. “Very easy and much more interesting than its ingredients suggest.”

Recipe: Marinated Zucchini with Farro, Chickpeas and Parmesan

A key to complementing poultry-based meatballs (or even burgers) is incorporating a high-moisture vegetable, such as zucchini, into the meat. Here, Ali Slagle grates zucchini and shallots before combining them with panko, ground chicken, herbs, and spices. The results are juicy enough to deserve more than 4,500 reviews.

Recipe: Chicken and Zucchini Meatballs with Feta

The best summer squash side dish might just be the simplest. Pierre Franey garnishes zucchini slices lightly sautéed with breadcrumbs, butter, shallots, and parsley for five-star results. “One of my taste testers said this made prolific garden zucchini ‘sexy,’” wrote one reader, and we couldn’t agree more.

Recipe: zucchini with shallots

Grilled, grated, sautéed and… caramelized? What can’t zucchini do? Two pounds of zucchini, slow-cooked until it’s a cup of sweet-and-savory jam, makes a complex, summery pasta sauce that gives tomatoes a well-deserved rest. Ali Slagle also recommends caramelizing zucchini for other applications, including but not limited to sandwich spreads and pizza crusts.

Recipe: Caramelized Zucchini Pasta

For a summer cookout sensation without the grill, zucchini is paired with dark meat chicken pieces and basil in this fit-for-night recipe from Melissa Clark. Skipping the grill in favor of a single dish and oven ensures that the meat and squash stay tender, with the juices staying in the pan to soak up the bread.

Somewhere between lasagna and eggplant parmigiana is this easy summery casserole from Martha Rose Shulman, the go-to for this season’s garden delights. Layers of thinly sliced ​​zucchini, perfectly seasoned homemade tomato sauce (or an exceptional jarred sauce if you’re short on time), and grated Parmesan cheese are the building blocks of this five-star recipe.

Recipe: Zucchini Parmesan

Thinly sliced ​​zucchini, softened and golden around the edges, soaks up the bright, bold flavors of fried shallots, capers, and lemon in this light, fresh pasta from Alison Roman. “This was the perfect eye-catching warm pasta salad to eat with grilled salmon (outdoors, with friends),” wrote one reader.

Recipe: Pasta with zucchini, feta and fried lemon

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