Parmesan Baked Zucchini (two ingredients!)

I’ve got such a fantastic side dish for you guys today. I tend to send out tons of dinner recipes here on MKL, but you ask for more things to go alongside those main courses, and so today I oblige. These Parmesan Baked Zucchini are as easy as pie and essentially foolproof. The quick and simple method relies on nothing more than salt to work properly (read on to see why I don’t count salt as an ingredient – I count it as a tool), and it has become a favorite of my family’s of late.

Because, cheese.

Tips and Tricks for Total Zucchini Domination

1. Mmmk. So, here it is January and all, and I’m out here sharing a summer squash recipe. Whatever is she thinking!? People may wonder. But while zucchini may be considered a seasonally summery vegetable, it really is just fine even in the dead of winter – let’s be honest – and can hold it’s own alongside the hearty winter squash that are practically overflowing our store shelves this time of year. I make this recipe year-round, and it’s always consistently delicious, reliably crowd-pleasing. So, I just had to whisk that little elephant outta the room first. Moving on …
2. Now, the thickness of the little zucchini slices does matter here. I’m not asking you to bust out a yard stick to measure the diameter of yours, but just try to ensure the following:

• They are all the same size, more or less. If some are hella thicc and others are like, threadbare thin, then the final eating experience and dare I say MOUTHFEEL will be so weird and inconsistent so as to make you question me as a recipe person altogether. So what I’m trying to say here, is that when it comes to your parmesan baked zucchini slices, size really does matter.
• When you lay them out on your sheet pan, just keep them in a single, even layer. No overlapping! That would cause more of a steaming to occur, and while I have nothing against steamed veggies, steam in this case would utterly destroy our efforts to create a crunchy, salty, crispy crust all over our squash. So, the single layer will help our cause.

Level up! Which Oven Rack Should I Use?

I want to write a much more detailed post about this, because I think it’s a truly interesting and useful thing to understand, as it applies to every thing that enters our ovens. Not all things are meant to bake at the same level in our ovens, as heat circulates, moves, and behaves differently throughout our ovens.

A good rule of thumb is to know that, when in doubt, you really can’t go wrong with the center position. Makes sense right? It’s sort of a best-of-both-worlds sort of thing. But for something like a tray of baked or roasted vegetables like these parmesan crusted zucchini, we’re aiming for a richly deep browning and a crunchy crust. The crust, in essence, is the star of the show here. So, we will be cooking our zucchini on the top rack. Yes oh yes.

Zucchini can be eaten totally raw, right? Right. It’s my second favorite dipper when enjoying my classic pimento cheese (second only to the Frito). And it is also the raw star of one of my favorite salads from my first cookbook, Smoke, Roots, Mountain Harvest (link is below if you want to check it out!).

Brown food tastes good

What’s my point? The primary focus with this recipe is not so much about cooking the zucchini so much as it is about browning the cheese. The salt tenderizes the squash for us (more on that in a sec) so really we’re just here for the maillard reacton (just wanted to drop that word, because it sounds tres’ profesh, no?). This is basically the chemical process that happens in many, many foods when amino acids and the caramelizing, reducing sugars react with one another to produce a brown crust that gives SO MUCH FLAVOR to so many things.

It’s like adding an ingredient without actually adding an ingredient, which you know is my favorite thing. It’s basically the best thing ever. Also, it’s the star of today’s show. I mean, just look at the golden brown crust on these babies? You know it’s going to be good, right?

How a little salt can help make the best parmesan baked zucchini. Ever

The only thing I really do in my version of this (nearly done to death!) side dish recipe is to salt the raw zucchini before cooking it. Just as you would do with eggplant, by sprinkling a little salt over the sliced rounds and letting it sit for about 10 minutes, you draw out the inherent moisture in the zucchini – the water will literally bead up on the surface of the little disks. This serves to not only season the squash (let’s be honest – it needs that). But it also helps the cheese stick.

Boom! Salt for the win, always and forever. Thanks to the osmosis process, salt draws out moisture from most foods and it’s this osmosis that we’re leveraging today in this awesome little baked zucchini recipe.

Just know that, even though I have now mentioned not one but TWO, chemical processes, this is actually a very, very simple recipe. I am only explaining these things because I personally geek out over this stuff and I like knowing how and why things work … at least in the kitchen.

What to serve with this parmesan baked zucchini

This is a really, really great side dish, as it goes with everything. I mean that quite literally, friends. You having fish tonight? Cool. Slide some of this baked zucchini up alongside it and watch how it all just WORKS. Going a beefy route? Great! These zucchini will add a fresh, green vibe that perfectly complements rich beef dishes.

Here are some main course recipes that are worth a gander, and would be great with these Parmesan Baked Zucchini:

Butter Roasted Salmon with Lemon and Capers

Coconut Red Curry Drip Beef

Quick and Easy Creamy Pesto Chicken

Pork Chops with Scallion Salsa

Sticky Maple Balsamic Pork Chops with Plums

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What you’ll need

Nothing like a solid two-ingredient recipe to really make you feel satisfied in the kitchen. If you’re wondering – I don’t count salt as an ingredient ever … I count it as a tool. It is as essential to every single recipe as the pots and pans in which the food is cooked. As crucial as the sharp knife you use to slice those zucchini into perfect little rounds, so too, is salt.

Salt is and should be omnipresent in our kitchens – both kosher salt and crunchy, flaky, crystalline sea salt. As James Beard so famously said, “where would we be without salt?”

INGREDIENTS

2 zucchini, sliced into (roughly) ¼-inch-thick rounds

Salt, as directed and needed

6 ounces grated parmesan cheese

How to make Parmesan Baked Zucchini

This recipe is absolutely all about the method, no question. I patted myself pretty hard on the back when I stopped and actually thought about the choreography of things, before just jumping in. It was really a question of: okay, there are plenty of recipes for this type of thing out there, is there something I can add to this whole zucchini conversation? The answer, as it turns out, is YES.

Here’s the breakdown of the (very simple) method for you:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Place a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on a large baking sheet. 
2. Lay the zucchini slices out on the prepared baking sheet. Season them with salt, just sprinkling a moderate amount evenly across their surfaces (I use about one to 1.5 teaspoons total). We’ll just do this on one side. Let them sit for 10 minutes, so the moisture will bead up to the surface.
3. After 10 minutes, dredge/press each zucchini slices in the grated parmesan, ensuring that they’re thickly coated on both sides. Gently lay them in an even layer on the baking sheet and bake until golden brown and crispy, about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your preference. 

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If you like the looks of this Parmesan Baked Zucchini, you might also want to check out:

Sticky Hot Honey Buttered Carrots with Whipped Ricotta

Garlicky Lemon Pepper Roasted Asparagus

Perfect Crispy Roasted Potato Wedges

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