Pretty Patty Pans..

These are patty pan squash. They look kind of like little flying saucers, would you not agree? Well, the French thought they looked like little cakes that were baked in moulded pans and decided to call them pâtisson, which in Provence, France means “cake from a scalloped mould” and the English shortened that up to “patty”. No matter what they may remind you of, I am here to tell you that they are delicious. If you like the taste of zucchini, you will most definitely love the flavour of these little patty pans. My vote says that these are better than zucchini. I will not deny that they are very similar, but they stand on their own as something different – more nutty, with more substance. Many people remove the insides of this squash, then cook it up and mix it with garlic and other ingredients and then stuff it back into the pretty pan shell,but I decided to slice them up and fry them with some olive oil,garlic and red onion and then made it a meal by serving them along side a quick pesto pasta made with some over abundant basil from my front door pot. Delicious! I found these patty pan squash at Ann Slater”s organic booth at the St.Mary”s Farmers Market, but I am pretty sure I saw these at the Covent Garden Market this time last year, also check for them at Trails End and North London Market as well as at those handy side-of-the-road farm stalls.  Read More