So you got some zucchini
Good morning. I lock my car doors when I park because I don’t want someone rooting around my glove box looking for treasure. That’s city life. Country mice may click their locks only during the summer. They don’t want a neighbor leaving a box of zucchini on the passenger seat with a note taped to the cardboard: “Sharing the harvest!” When that happens, you have to get creative. Zucchini go to mush so fast. Still, I’ll lay in a good supply this weekend, first and foremost so I can make Eric Kim’s recipe for cold noodles with zucchini (above), dressed with soy and fish sauces, maple syrup, a hit of garlic powder and a spray of lime juice. There’s a secret ingredient, too: ice, which both cools the noodles and slightly dilutes the dressing. I like some cashews sprinkled over the top as well, for crunch. Featured Recipe Cold Noodles With ZucchiniThen, a zucchini bread to serve with salted butter. Some zucchini pickles for the refrigerator. And maybe a zucchini Parm? (I might portion that out onto hero rolls, for sandwiches to eat at the beach as the sun makes its descent in the western sky.) Other possibilities for a Saturday night in July: pasta with zucchini, ricotta and basil; smashed zucchini with chickpeas and peanuts; salt and pepper zucchini, to eat with rice and chile crisp. We have a lot of recipes for zucchini. There’s no need to fear a surfeit. Not that you have to cook squash this weekend. (You locked your car doors!) You could instead make chilled tofu with gochujang sauce, gingery grilled chicken thighs with charred peaches or an icy schav. Maybe a corn soup, simple and rich? Or grilled chicken thighs with mango pepper relish? Cod cakes? And then, for Sunday breakfast, these remarkable masa pancakes, adapted from a recipe the chef Yara Herrera uses at her Hellbender restaurant in Queens. They’re sturdy and light, with an immense depth of corny flavor. For sure I’ll make fruit salad to go with them, a preparation for which you don’t need a recipe, only the best fruit you can find. Recently, for me, that was a trio of perfect nectarines; a tiny, sweet watermelon; a cheek of pineapple; and two soft mangoes. I thought about adding the juice of a lime at the end, but decided not to — the acidity of the pineapple was enough to bring everything together. You’ll find your own way with the fruits you have, and perhaps fruit salad will be a theme of your summer. For many more ideas for what to cook this weekend, come visit us at New York Times Cooking. (Yes, you need a subscription to do that. Subscriptions are what make this whole deal possible. If you haven’t taken one out yet, please, would you think about subscribing today? Thanks.) Reach out for help if you find yourself in a jam with our technology or your account. We’re at cookingcare@nytimes.com, and someone will get back to you. Or you can write to me if you’d like to pay my colleagues a compliment or send a cutting remark in my direction: hellosam@nytimes.com. I can’t respond to every letter. But I read each one I get. Now, it’s really nothing to do with pork loin or huckleberries, but I’m racing through Chris Sweeney’s “The Feather Detective,” about a woman named Roxie Laybourne, the world’s first forensic ornithologist, who died in 2003 at 92. (The book’s forthcoming, but Audubon Magazine has an excerpt.) Kevin Lozano has a profile of the novelist Richard Price in The New Yorker, and it’s worth reading because it may spur you to read, or reread, Price’s excellent 1992 novel, “Clockers.” That’s something I try to do at least biannually, for the charge it delivers. A.O. Scott on Clint Eastwood, in The New York Times Book Review? I’m in. Finally, Jon Pareles put me on to this terrific new Tyler Childers track, “Oneida.” Listen to that while you’re zuking. I’ll see you on Sunday.
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