Squash

Toasted Breadcrumb

All you have to do is add a little olive oil to a sauté pan. Heat it a bit. Throw in a peeled, smashed clove of garlic. Add about a cup of breadcrumbs (regular, panko, fresh-made, either/or) and sauté until golden or dark brown. Season with salt & pepper. Discard garlic clove.

Now what?

I used to only make this when I made pasta with a seafood sauce. Toasted, flavored breadcrumb sprinkled on the pasta instead of cheese is the best way to enjoy seafood pasta.

But now I go crazy. I’m topping fish filets and then roasting them in the oven with some added lemon. (Sometimes I add a little grated parmigiano to the breadcrumb.)

Cod Filets with Breadcrumb Topping

I’m mixing the toasted breadcrumb with roasted or sautéed vegetables. (Zucchini, roasted peppers, string beans, asparagus.)

Zucchini and yellow squash

Peppers, Capers, Breadcrumb

Sprinkle some on top of scrambled eggs. Add it to the salad. Stuff a chicken breast. Or a mushroom or tomato.

Roasted Tomatoes with Breadcrumb

The crunch, the added flavor, the look of it (rustic, surprising, okay, yes, exciting) takes your dish to a deeper level. Maybe it’s from the cucina povera but necessity is often the muse of several bouts of serendipity.

Paulette

La Zucca, Venice Italy

Zucca means squash in Italian. Specifically those pumpkin-like green-skinned orange-fleshed squashes perfect for pasta filling, roasting, grilling, and all-around indulging in tasty earthiness that’s also SO good for you.

The restaurant La Zucca is in the sestiere Santa Croce in Venice, a bit of a ways from the neighborhood we stayed in of Dorsoduro. But with map in hand we strolled from calle to calle to campo to campo, getting lost but finding beauty at every lost turn…it’s inevitable…it’s Venice. Getting lost is actually on many top 10 lists of what to do in the city. I highly recommend it!

La Zucca in Venice

Up a pretty bridge and over a pretty canal we finally found La Zucca. We all agreed it was so worth the effort.

Different than a typical Italian restaurant, this one had a lovely creative focus on vegetarian cuisine, but didn’t shy away from meats, too. The interior immediately hugs you upon entering in a warm, yet modern way. The walls are covered in multiple slats of comforting wood. The tables are of the same wood. The menus are beautiful little sculptures of yellow shaped like small houses. And the place mats match the friendly yellow.