Something just a tad bit different. A riff on a standard Southern dish. Zucchini cloaked in a light custard, grated cheese added and cheese cracker crumbs sprinkled on top. Easy.
Have you ever read a recipe, thought you’d saved it and didn’t? Then 2 days later you go looking for it and can’t find it. That’s me. I was SURE I’d saved the recipe – I’d found it on somebody’s blog. Went to the 2 blogs I thought it must have been, but nope. Not there. So what’s a cook to do except hunt around on the ‘net for another one.
This recipe is very similar to hundreds. Squash casserole is ubiquitous in the South. Most of them are made with yellow squash, however. You could use yellow squash in this one, but I had zucchini.
As I write this I’ve just spent the last 5 days. 4-6 hours each day, going back in my blog for the last 4 years (to mid-2011) and adding all the posted recipes from my blog into my MasterCook software. What a tedious job that was. My buns were sore from sitting. My kitten kept me company in his little bed (one of those short cat poles with a round carpeted bed on top) waiting for strokes now and then. So at least I now have a record of all my blog recipes, but have still “lost” all the saved to-try recipes. There were hundreds of them. Oh well, so many recipes out there and never enough time to try them all anyway.
So, what I had was zucchini, Fontina cheese, Pecorino and some cheesy crackers – actually they weren’t Cheez-its (I never buy those anyway) but Trader Joe’s new cheese crackers. I don’t like them particularly, but they worked fine for this recipe which I knew I was going to make which is why I bought them. I’ll likely throw out the remainder of the box because they’re not good enough to snack on. Most of the recipes use Cheddar, or even American cheese.
I had a couple of leeks, so decided to use them, although they are not traditional in this casserole. They added a nice sweetness to the 
custard. I lightly sautéed onion and the leeks, then added the chunky zucchini in. I cooked all that until the zucchini was almost cooked, but not quite. That got poured into a casserole dish, a custard mixture (2 eggs, 2% milk and a tetch of cream) cheese was added on top, then the crushed up cheese crackers. I added the cream because I only had 2% milk, and the recipes I read all called for whole milk. You can do it all with 2% if you’d prefer. At left is the unbaked casserole.
Into the oven it went for about 20-25 minutes until the top was a bit crusty golden brown. The cheese crackers didn’t really brown, which was fine – it’s the cheese and the egg mixture that does. I let it sit out for about 5 minutes before I scooped out a serving. I’d made some salmon for my dinner. It was dreadful. Probably the preparation was fine, but the salmon had freezer burn on it and it just tasted awful. I ate about 3 tiny bites and threw it all out. I made a chunked up salad of tomatoes, mozzarella, red bell peppers and some Italian parsley. It made up for the awful salmon. I didn’t even 
want to put it in my trash (I don’t use my garbage disposal much anymore because it too easily gets clogged up) because I knew it would smell something fierce. The disposal made quick work of about 1/2 pound of salmon. Sigh. At right is the finished (baked) casserole.
What’s GOOD: it’s very easy to prepare and makes a simple vegetable very elegant and tasty. I liked the custard and the cheese. And the onions & leeks also added a sweetness. I could have done without the cheese cracker crumb crust – maybe next time I’d use saltines or panko. Or maybe if I’d used Cheez-its or Pepperidge Farms’ cheesy crackers it would have tasted better. But overall, it was a great dish. It could also be a very nice vegetarian entree.
What’s NOT: only that it takes about 15-20 minutes to get it ready for the oven. A bit of chopping and mixing. But worth doing.
printer-friendly PDF and FILES: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open in MC)
Zucchini Cheesy Custard Casserole
Recipe By: My own concoction, based on a variety of online recipes, 2015
Serving Size: 6
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 pound zucchini — stemmed, coarsely chopped
1/2 medium onion — chopped
1 large leek — cleaned, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
2/3 cup Fontina cheese — grated (or Cheddar)
1/3 cup Pecorino cheese — grated (or Parmigiano, or some other cheese of choice)
1/2 cup cheese crackers — crushed
1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. In a large skillet heat olive oil until it begins to shimmer, then add onion and leeks. Cook until vegetables begin to soften, but not brown at all. Turn heat down if necessary.
3. Add zucchini and cover. Continue cooking for about 4-7 minutes until zucchini is nearly cooked through.
4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk eggs until they’re blended, then add milk. Set aside.
5. Grate cheese and crumble the cheese crackers and set aside.
6. Grease a casserole dish (about 2 quart) and pour the vegetable mixture into the dish. Level slightly. Pour in the milk mixture and top with grated cheeses.
7. Top with cheese cracker mixture and bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is golden.
Per Serving: 239 Calories; 14g Fat (52.8% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 93mg Cholesterol; 341mg Sodium.
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