Simple Scored, Pan Seared, and Roasted Zucchini Halves Recipe – Ea tSimple Food .com

Recipe: https://eatsimplefood.com/simple-scored-pan-seared-and-roasted-zucchini-halves/

This easy and simple scored zucchini halves recipe is pan seared on the stovetop for ~ 5 minutes and then transferred to the oven to roast at 450F.

Optional feta cheese can be added, but scored zucchini halves are perfect baked with just olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Cast Iron Seared and Baked Zucchini Halves
Cook this simple roasted zucchini halves recipe in a cast iron skillet. Cast iron holds heat really well and evenly and also transfers from the stovetop to a hot oven to finish baking at a high heat of 450F.

Don’t have cast iron or maybe it’s too heavy? Cool, use any skillet that can go from the stovetop to a high heat oven.

For example, most nonstick skillets can not handle oven temperatures above 375F.

Scoring Zucchini Halves Before Searing
Thomas Keller’s viral recipe had me wondering why I never scored the zucchini halves before.

Scoring it is such a beautiful way to present food, especially zucchini halves. Pick firm small to medium sized zucchini. These zucchini sizes generally have fewer seeds (thus less water).

Run the tip of a knife along the top of the zucchini halves but don’t go all the way through the zucchini, just scratch the surface. Score around to ⅛th of an inch through.

Scoring zucchini halves allows for flavor to soak in if you have a sauce.

Lastly, scoring zucchini makes the exterior crispy and caramelized while leaving the inside tender.

Hear Me Out About Not Salting Zucchini
I rarely salt small to medium sized zucchini that I’m cooking at high heat. These zucchini sizes generally have fewer seeds (thus less water).

Additionally, blotting zucchini with paper towels takes time. I also don’t believe it’s as effective when you’re searing or baking at high heat for a shorter amount of time.

Salt brings out the water, yes, it’s true. But, I like to cut the zucchini halves and immediately throw them in the hot pan while the zucchini is still dry.

Albeit there is a sticky surface on the cut side of the zucchini. Once the zucchini hits the high heat, that sears right off.

Also, when zucchini or other vegetables are salted they need to be rinsed to get the salt off. Starting off with wet zucchini insides that have been paper dried (lazily in my case) is not worth the effort or effect.

Now, I have never tasted Thomas Keller zucchini halves, maybe some day, sigh. And I have a right to change my mind, but for right now this is what I’m doing and have always done to the delight of many happy eaters.

Additions to Scored Pan Seared Zucchini Halves:
This is a basic and simple scored, seared, and baked zucchini recipe, especially if not adding optional cheeses.

Think about using this method but adding some of the following ingredients and making the recipe your own!

bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese
Feta cheese
Basil Pesto
Lemon and Olives
miso glaze
honey glaze
fresh or dried Herbs
Nuts such as pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, slivered almonds
Seeds like toasted sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients:

• 3 small – medium zucchini, halved and scored
• vegetable oil
• salt
• black pepper
• feta cheese – optional

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450F
• Bring an oven safe pan to medium high heat.
• Add enough vegetable oil to lightly coat the pan.
• When hot, add scored zucchini halves, flesh (flat) side down
• Sear for 5-7 minutes on first side or until browned.
• Flip zucchini and immediately place in oven.
• Add optional feta cheese if desired.
• Bake scored zucchini for 8-10 minutes or until desired tenderness.
• Broil (optional) last 2-3 minutes if you want the zucchini browner.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.

this is a pan seared and roasted baked zucchini halves um the zucchini halves are scored and it’s based off of a Thomas Keller recipe um but I’ve actually never eaten his recipe um so this is my take on it so you can either take the stems off or leave them on it’s just a presentation thing and got three medium zucchinis and you want firm zucchinis not soy not a lot of seeds um and you just score it e it’s really easy with um just a sharp knife tip go up and down it um I’ve got the oven going at 450 F and I’m warming up a cast iron pan because you want a pan that will go or a skillet that will go from the stove top to the oven um I’m not even going to Salt these um zucchini has a lot of water and the salt brings it out so um I’m trying to get a sear on it uh so I’m I’ll salt it afterwards or when I flip it um so that’s vegetable oil use another high heat oil um that’s new neutral be safflower oil is another one that I like a lot um so this pan is a little bit too small for all these but I’m going to shove them in anyway um that’s a kind of a classic mistake to overcrowd a pan but sometimes you got to do it you got to break the rules um so throw those in and you’re going to cook those for like on a medium high heat until it’s brown and you know sometimes one side of the stove top will cook better than the other and sometimes it won’t you might need to move them around if they’re small you might need to take them out um but that basically goes for um like 5 to 7 minutes um just how you see it brown you don’t want to disturb it too much but you do need to check sometimes and move them around so when you’re done with that you flip them around and if you want now you can add some cheese I’m going to throw on some feta on this one um feta doesn’t melt or anything like that um but you could also do parmesan or Chev or whatever um but then when you flip it you’re just going to Salt and Pepper it and then basically you immediately take the pan Which is super hot the handle cuz it’s cast iron um so you want to be really careful use your oven mitts or your towels and transfer that to the oven at 450 um you can see here I’m I’m playing with some different cheeses and that’s totally optional um this is a really easy way to cook zucchini you know it doesn’t take very much time at all so throw that in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes um and then if it’s not Browning like if your oven doesn’t work right and it doesn’t is not Browning Additionally you can put on br for a couple minutes but just watch it really carefully so it doesn’t burn um and then take it out you ready add some more salt and pepper you can serve these with all sorts of different sauces too and pesto and I really like it with a chili oil um sauce like a Korean chili oil sauce but I don’t have a recipe for that yet anyway drizzle it with whatever you like and you can find this recipe at eats simple food.com and this is um scored seared and baked zucchini HPS