I am the first one to admit that this recipe is somewhat elaborate. But I like making this in our class because we are learning several ways to cook vegetables here, roasting the squash rounds in the oven, sautéing the zucchini, and we serve it on a fresh tomato coulis with a Provencale pistou sauce, toasted pine nuts and fresh goats cheese. You have to really love somone to make this dish for them - although it can be made in advance and served cold or at room temperature. It’s wonderfully fresh, light, and tasty, a great way to showcase summer vegetables, and it looks lovely on the plate..
For the base:
We use yellow squash rounds for this recipe - which is a variety of squash which is round. You can also use hollowed out oblong shaped yellow squash in its place.
1 yellow squash per person ( cut in half - 1/2 hollowed out, the other half diced)
1/2 zucchini per person - diced
1/4 red pepper per person - diced
1 medium sized ripe beefsteak tomato per person
3 Tbs of fresh basil leaves finely chopped
Raspberry vinegar
Organic Sunflower oil
Olive oil
1 medium sized garlic clove
Fleure de sel
Fresh goats cheese
Toasted pine nuts
Start by prepping everything as indicated above.
Take the hollowed out yellow squash and arrange in a baking dish, hollow side up. Fill the bottom of the dish 1/8 of the way up of water to steam the squash. Sprinkle some olive oil all over and pop them in the oven for 30 minutes on 350 degrees.
Meanwhile sautée on med to high heat the diced squash and zucchini until
Golden brown in sunflower or other non flavored high heat oil. . Sautée the red pepper until slightly more brown, separately. Mix the squash, zucchini and red pepper all together and set aside.
Bring a gallon or so of water to
A boil in a stock pot. Cook the tomatoes in the boiling water for 4-5 minutes - which will soften them nicely. Purée them one at a time using a food mill - which removes the skins, seeds and stems. Leaving just the tomato pulp. Add a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of vinegar, fresh basil and finishing salt to
taste.
Once your yellow squash are soft inside but still firmish - a knife should easily pierce them. Prepare plates or shallow bowls by adding a ladle of tomato coulis on the plate as a base, followed by the zucchini mix, filling each one with a generous amount, add the goats cheese, pistou sauce and pine nuts on top.
You may not need to salt but a finishing salt and fresh ground pepper are always a nice addition.
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