Summer Squash with Basil Butter
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How to cook green and yellow squash: Make this quick and easy vegetable side dish with fresh basil butter.
Let’s be honest. Yellow summer squash can be bland, and the bigger they get, the more watery and seedy they are.
To get the best out of zucchini and small colorful squashes (like patty pan), choose them when they’re small and baby-sized.
Their flesh will be firm and somewhat crisp, and they won’t need much in the way of cooking.
I love summer squash and zucchini raw in salads with olive and Parmesan.
Or, just as good, when these mild-tasting vegetables are quickly pan-fried, they seem made for other summer ingredients like basil and tomatoes.
The basil butter in this recipe is quick to make and brings out the best in little zucchini.
My first attempt at growing summer squash didn’t work out so well.
We’d just bought a mod 1950s stucco house in Miami, with a carport, terrazzo tile floors and a postcard backyard, most of which was occupied by a cracked concrete patio slab.
The gaps and crevices in that patio supported an alarming number of tenacious tropical weeds that I never, ever learned to control. In fact the whole outdoor landscape in South Florida was a challenge to my New England senses; verdantly evergreen, crawling with super-sized insects and iguanas.
Up to that point, I’d been an apartment dweller. The only plants I’d cultivated were a ficus tree and assorted pots of herbs on a windowsill.
But I was inspired by a little book on vegetable gardening I’d picked up at a thrift store, Angelo Pellegrini’s The Food Lover’s Garden, published in 1970. The book seemed romantically old-school to me. Pellegrini was an Italian immigrant of my grandparents’ generation, a college professor “with an instinct for the good life.”
I wanted to start living my own good life, growing my own food in my own yard, imagining that the everlasting summer climate would be paradisiacal for vegetables.
But the profuse garden outlined in the good professor’s book, full of all manner of “herbaceous edibles,” was in temperate Washington state, not the subtropics.
Long story short, when I finally paid attention to what was growing and thriving in my neighbors’ backyards I realized I’d have much better luck growing bananas and coconuts. (I did.)
I reread some of Pellegrini’s book recently, and he reminded me that the word zucchini means “little pumpkins” in Italian.
The colorful varieties of summer squash in the market in the warmer months are related botanically to the beautiful hard-skinned pumpkins (zucce) we’ll be enjoying in the fall and winter.
It’s easy to forget that cute little summer squash have something in common with pumpkins unless you’ve ever grown zucchini.
They start out so innocently small, but within days the fruits can grow to the size of jumbo baseball bats!
In this recipe, the squash are quickly blanched in salty water and mixed with a basil-infused butter sauce. Be sure to keep an eye on your timer after you put them in the boiling water or they will turn to mush!
Summer Squash with Basil Butter
Ingredients
- 1 (120 g) stick butter, 4 ounces, room temperature
- 2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
- 1 ½ pounds (680 g) small summer squash, preferably no more than 1-inch diameter
- Kosher or sea salt
- ¼ cup (25 g) finely grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Pulse the butter and basil in a mini food processor about 30 seconds, until the basil is finely chopped and the mixture is creamy. Alternatively, chop the basil by hand and fold into the butter in a bowl. You’ll need just half the basil butter for this recipe. Cover and refrigerate up to a week. (It’s delicious on sweet corn, pasta or toasted bread).
- Slice the squash into equal bite-size pieces. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil with 2 tablespoons salt in a saucepan. Add the squash to the pan and set a timer for 3 minutes. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the cooking water, then immediately drain the squash.
- Put ¼ cup of the basil butter in a serving bowl with 2 tablespoons of the cheese and ¼ teaspoon salt. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the reserved cooking water to make a creamy sauce. If your butter is cold you might need a little more water.
- Toss the squash with the butter. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
oh yes, this looks good
It is good stuff!