Zucchini Bacon Pizza

Everything's better with bacon? Well, bacon sure makes the August zucchini crop extra tasty on this pizza with fontina cheese, zucchini, and fresh tomato pesto

This summer is not the summer of monster zucchini--not in my garden nor in our farm share.  [It is, however, the summer that I harvested a 42 pound volunteer--meaning I didn't plant that--pumpkin the first week of August! You can see us here on my FB page.] Nope, all of the zucchini and summer squash has been harvested in lovely small tender sizes--perfect for grilling or slicing and using on a pizza. Then again I think everything is perfect for a pizza.

I'm having an interesting summer so far with the produce from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share.  Normally my kids do not readily embrace all of the vegetables, so I shred and tuck them in here and combine there so that I'm serving meals that contain a lot of vegetables but don't have lots of single vegetables dishes, if that makes sense. 

This summer, the kids have realized how tasty a zucchini pancake (or crepe, or fritter) is, so we've been making them often. [Turnip fritters, too--and I've got a beet hanging out in the crisper waiting it's turn to fritter away . . .] They are also eating peppers and onions in their eggs and on pizza. Crazy--is it teenagers, or is it because it's our 9th season eating from the farm share (more than half of their lives, both of them!) and the constant exposure to all the vegetables has worked?

Teriyaki Peppers

Colorful bell peppers coated in a teriyaki-seasoned sauce

Peppers are such a useful garden vegetable.  They can be thrown into meals all day long, from breakfast scrambled eggs to supper spaghetti sauce.   They can be eaten raw as a vehicle to convey dip into the mouth,  or baked as a container for additional filling. They can be frozen [rinse, dry, chop, freeze on a tray like a berry before transferring into a bag/jar] and used in baked dishes year round.

Rarely, though, do peppers shine on their own.  In my continuing quest to add vegetable side dishes to my repertoire I'd like to share these easy Teriyaki Peppers. The sauce can be customized to meat-eating or vegetarian meals, and you can use whatever alliums you want. I used leeks, but I'll make them next with shallots since my garden shallots are abundant.

Tomato Basil Pizza

Slices of fresh ripe tomatoes and fresh basil leaves for an 'in summer only' vegetarian pizza

I learned a trick that has dramatically improved my summer pizzas topped with fresh sliced tomatoes:  just let them hang out for a while. Previous attempts at fresh tomato and basil pizza tended to result in wet tomatoes and dry basil. Not a good combination on a pizza. 

I cracked the fresh herb code [did you know there was a fresh herb code? Now you do] with my Fresh Herb Pizza, so I figured it was time to crack the tomato code.  The Illuminati are not involved. Just time and a bit of salt.