Oven-roasted zucchini spears with parmesan cheese

With the October-like weather we are having this month, there are not many opportunities to do work in the yard or in the garden. Yesterday morning, Callie and I couldn't even go out for a standard walk. It was raining too hard, and the poor dog didn't want to go out in it. I took a big umbrella (there was no wind) and we walked a few steps around the yard and on the road next to the house, mainly to give her a chance to do her business.

So this blog has fallen back on food once more. There are few opportunities for photography outdoors. Everything colorful and warm these days seems to be in the kitchen. And I've enjoyed discovering and trying some new recipes. For example, yesterday I made a batch of really good blueberry muffins from a recipe I found on food.com.

Oven-roasted zucchini spears with parmesan cheese and herbs

But this post is about not sweets but savory vegetables. It's still summer, which means that we have a vegetable garden that is producing, for the moment, summer squash and green beans. Beans are easy — we just eat as many as we can, and we blanch and freeze a lot of them for winter eating. With zucchini — well, we are still trying to eat some every day.

Here's a very simple and delicious way to cook zucchini. You cut it into spears and roast the spears in the oven. To season them, make a mixture of grated parmesan cheese, dried herbs — oregano, thyme, basil, tarragon, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and, if you have it, garlic powder.

Arrange the spears on a rack in an oven pan and roast them at high temperature.

Toss the zucchini spears in a big bowl in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Dredge each spear, at least on the cut sides, in the cheese/herb mixture. Arrange them on a rack in a baking pan, as shown in the photos here. Put the pan in a hot oven — at least 220ºC, say, which is 425ºF — and cook the spears for about 20 minutes, until they start to brown.

We had the zuke spears with roasted, pulled lamb barbecue and spicy black beans.

The zucchini will be juicy but with a slight crunch, and the cheese coating with be crispy. The flavor is very good, and it's not at all the mushy squash texture you might be tired of by now. Let me give credit where it is due: Damn Delicious, a blog produced by an obviously talented woman named Chungah. Thanks to her.