- The longest zucchini ever
grown was 8.3 feet long or 2.5 meters. That could make a lot of dishes! So I was curious, what is a zucchini dish from your country that
I should try making? Five people from five countries responded, so let's start the zucchini episode. (bright music) - Hey Beryl, my name is Lindsay and I am from North Carolina in the south of the United States. The dish that I want
to share with you today is called zucchini pie. Zucchini pie, unlike its name sounds like is actually a savory
dish that is in pie form. Zucchini pie is a dish full of contrasts. - Even though I recently came off of my high of making shoe pastry, we're doing a pre-made
pie shell for this one, which I'm pretty sure I need to pre-bake. My messy unsafe kitchen
on top a pie shell. I'm a real Betty Crocker. - [Lindsay] It is full of vegetables, but also really cheesy. It is also really hearty, but it's really light as well. - I love using a mandolin, but I also have been severely
wounded by a mandolin, like lost tips of my fingers on one, but it's worth it because I
just love a uniform slice. Perfect. - [Lindsay] It is a family dish and it's one of our favorites. I think my mom really liked this dish because she could get us kids to eat all of our vegetables
all at once together. When my mom was growing up, my grandma used to grow
zucchini in her backyard and she used to say that she would have to pick them when they were really
small in the mornings because if she waited a few hours they would all be the
size of baseball bats. - When it comes to the chop wizard, it is important that you don't overload it because then it's really easy. Otherwise it's embarrassing. Oh no. Come down. Easy peasy. - [Lindsay] My mom would
make this dish for us in the summertime only and it's one of our
favorite summer traditions, zucchini pie medium summer for me. - As much crushed garlic as you want. Okay. She said one clove at least. So we're gonna do three cloves
'cause that feels right. - [Lindsay] I think everyone
should try zucchini pie at least once because just looking
at the ingredient list, you don't think any of this
is gonna work together, but somehow it just comes
together beautifully and it really surprises you. - Going in. Bye. While my zucchini pies are in the oven, I have an ax to grind with
Pillsbury's pre-made pie crusts because look at how thick and juicy and voluptuous
this pie turned out here. Not only one layer of meringue, but all the curd. The pie shells are this big. You are not getting a
thick pie out of there. I couldn't fit all the zucchini in. I don't really think I
can get much more in here. They lied. I'm sad. - [Lindsay] Even though the
dish is mostly zucchini, it doesn't seem like it because the onions, butter, and garlic compliment
the zucchini really well. It just surprises you. - Just as I suspected. In my mind I imagine it was
gonna be like thick juicy pie, but it's gonna be like... The slice is gonna be this thick. Pillsbury pie crust lied to me. First of all, the edge
can't sit up and it's thin. Look at this. Now that doesn't mean
it's not gonna taste good, it just means false advertising. Pillsbury, you did me dirty. It's funny, Lindsay said that the ingredients seem like they wouldn't work well together, but to me this seems perfect. The mustard is really good. It's actually more, I mean, I smeared it on
the top and the bottom. I'm like, it's more
powerful than I thought. I think without the mustard this actually might not
have like so much flavor. Zucchini's not exactly the
most robust of vegetables, but I really like the
spicy mustard with it and it is cheesy. I think adding a little Parmesan for a little bit of that
saltiness would be really good. Wow! I assumed when I saw zucchini pie that it was gonna be
shredded for some reason like a graded zucchini
in some sort of mixture. When it was the half moon shapes I really was a little bit curious about how this was gonna turn out and I wasn't sure how thick
I should be slicing it because I was like "Do you want like big chunks
of zucchini in your mouth?" But this isn't big chunks
of zucchini in your mouth. It's very soft. It cooked down really well
with all that butter and onion. This is an A plus recipe. Super simple minus the
aforementioned lies by big Pillsbury. I mean, that didn't change the simplicity. It just made me mad. I ate my whole slice. I talked a lot of smack about that crust, but at the end of the day, the crust tasted good. Not as good as the
filling, but it was good. - Hi Beryl. Hi everybody. I am Henar and I am
originally from Madrid. I am currently here with
my fiance and my cat. The dish I wanna talk to you
about today is Noquerones, a very easy and a special
way to prepare zucchinis. It comes from the typical way to eat anchovies here in Spain. We call them boquerones. - I have to remove all the
skin so no green left behind because she said that
it'll make it bitter. But I sometimes wonder,
would it make it bitter? I don't know. I just think American zucchinis
especially are so weak, a weak vegetable that I just question whether or not they're
even capable of bitterness. But no green, it's all
gonna be cleared out - [Henar] But this is
the bigger version of it. So there are no anchovies. They are zucchini. We call them Noquerones . - I have to peel it into ribbons and I have my normal peeler and then I have this peeler that I bought from my watermelon episode and it was so hard to use that
I haven't touched it since, but I feel like I'm gonna try again. You will not best me peeler. Ooh! Ha-ha! I got it. Ooh. - [Henar] They're refreshing. A little bit savory and the special flavor of the garlic gets sent to everything. I might consider zucchini as
my favorite summer vegetable as I have so many friends and family that give me
fresh zucchini from the jar. - I'm pretty sure I have a cap. God! Everything is so dramatic in this drawer. I have a cap. - [Henar] I don't know why people think that zucchini don't have a special flavor. I believe that if you leave zucchini to be the main character of the film, you can find its flavor with these, a little bitter, soft,
maybe kind of sweet. Maybe the secret of this is the slices. Instead of big chunks, you can have as many as you
want to without getting bored. - So the recipe calls for parsley. I have cilantro, but there's no difference
between the two, right? Right? Fight in the comments. - [Henar] I think people
will enjoy these zucchinis because it's different and
it is easy and creative. I believe there are so many ways and so many uses to this dish and people will find it refreshing and very interesting for the summer. Enjoy! - Considering that I kind of recently just got back from Spain, it feels kind of fitting. Oh my God. So you all need to make this immediately. While this did take a little bit of time, all of the steps were so simple. There was one full day in my fridge next to the giant pickle. Look at it! Hello, I'm obscenely big. And then just letting
it sit with the parsley and garlic and the oil afterwards. I think I left it there
for like five hours because I was doing other
stuff throughout the day. This to me is like you
have a cold glass of wine, a couple of other snacky snacks, and everyone's kind of sitting
around a table chatting. I mean, this is tapas, perfect tapas. I like the ribbon. I feel like maybe this
is my first time ever having a pickled zucchini. It has the kind of same type of crunch that a good pickle has. You have a good bite to it. It's not all soft, even
though it's very thin. I don't know if I really
taste zucchini in this, which I guess is like not that surprising because zucchini is not necessarily the strongest taste in all of the plants. I am getting a lot of the vinegar, a lot of the garlic and the herbs, and the olive oil. I'm very into it and I feel like I could
eat this entire plate. I'm not sure if leaving the skin on would've made this bitter. I obviously did wanna risk it, but I think in general American vegetables don't have the same
trappings as European ones because our stuff is so mutated and just has gone through the ringer of genetic manipulation. And so ultimately I just
think maybe the zucchinis that we get here are a bit
like lower down in quality and taste and everything
than zucchinis from abroad. It's just the way it is unfortunately. I feel like we're up to
a rip roaring start here. I love a zucchini and
I'm excited to see... I should have just waited, but I ate in the middle, literally in the middle of talking. I'm excited to see what
else we have coming up. (bright music) - [Rose] Hello, Beryl. My name is Rose and I am from Jordan. The dish that I want to
tell you about is called Koosa Wu Beidh, which translates literally
to zucchini and X. Koosa Wu Beidh, is well
known across Jordan. It's one of the breakfast stables. The dish does not require
a lot of components, does not require real
effort in the kitchen. The whole thing can be
wiped out in 15 minutes, sometimes less. - I wasn't sure what to do with this leftover zucchini center from the Spanish dish. It's going into the Jordanian dish. - [Rose] Koosa Wu Beidh,
is a very good introduction to the food culture of
Jordan and Palestine. This food culture is characterized
by a deep appreciation of resources and they are
generally zero waste cultures. Although this dish is humble and probably for some people, zucchini isn't that delicious
and isn't that tasteful. For me, the dish is about the way our family
gathers around the dish. - The recipe doesn't say how
much of everything to use, but my gut is telling me that it's zucchini and onion forward and the eggs are there as a binder maybe. So I'm gonna go with
more veg to egg ratio. That's what my melon heart, my zucchini heart is telling me. - [Rose] And because my
mother insists on cooking it it feels like a blessing to me
despite it being very simple. I believe what's most important
is not how we see the food as advertised by fancy
dining and fancy dishes. I think we should start looking at vegetables and at food generally from the point of view of how to preserve, how to respect, and how to appreciate resources. How can I best not waste resources? And that's why I believe you should give Koosa Wu Beidh, a go. Please try this dish. Try it with your family. Try it on a day where you
don't have to go to work. You can slow down and just enjoy the food, enjoy the company, enjoy the silence. Just don't forget that you
have to scoop the mixture out with a piece of flat bread. Have some well salted
slices of tomato next to it. You can even add some parsley
on top of it and enjoy. - I think that when I think
about a scrambled egg, the last vegetable that I would ever think to put
into it would be a zucchini because it doesn't add that much flavor. But I do know that with the zucchini pie, that was a great combo. So I don't see why this would
not also be a great combo. I made my bread too small, so now my fingers are
all over it, whatever. This is a great combo. I feel like I can really taste
zucchini in a very good way. Wow! I also really taste the onion. Should've put it through my chopper. It's too late. I really taste the fresh herbs that I put in at the very end. Altogether, I am very surprised and psyched about this
zucchini egg scramble. I really love Middle Eastern breakfast because there's always different textures. There's always different
flavors on your plate. And I love olives in the morning. This happens a lot when I get recipes and they're recipes
that are family recipes so they don't necessarily
come with instructions, they just kind of come with vibes. And so I had to use my intuition. I think a little more. It's a big onion, but I'll go half. Maybe the big nut, this is fine. Oh, this might be, we'll just see how it goes. I might need to take some out. Oh yeah. Wait, I think that's
the right amount of egg. I think I did this well. I really like the texture
and the consistency and I feel like the ratio's
right of egg to veg. I like that I was able to
use the leftover zucchini from the dish from Spain
because I was like, "What am I gonna do with
this zucchini core?" And then boom, here comes this perfect dish that's literally made
for leftover zucchini. I love that. And it really makes me excited about the food waste episode
that I have coming up, which I think is gonna
be really interesting. Overall, what Rose said about
looking at an ingredient as a whole and not just as
like a way to elevate it but just to appreciate it and have it, I feel like that is what
zucchinis are made for, that type of attitude. And this dish perfectly
exemplifies the idea of using the whole vegetable and using the leftover
bits of the vegetable and elevating it into a
flavor that is surprising, but delicious and very easy to make. - [Bar] Hi Beryl, my name is Bar. I live in Tel Aviv, Israel, but my grandparents are Jews
who migrated from Bulgaria. The dish I want to talk about is Anginara. It's a very simple and very
classic Sephardic Jewish dish of zucchini peels, stew, and sweet tar tomato sauce, traditionally eaten cold. I like Anginara because it's very tasty and easy and fast to make. Eating cold, it's very refreshing. You can also eat it warm with rice and it's comforting and anxious. - So this recipe and the Spanish recipe both talked about the seeds. Maybe American zucchinis just don't really have
seeds in the same way. I just feel like, is this
worth it to remove the seeds? They seem so inconsequential. Okay, okay. I've de-seeded this. I don't know. I'll probably just do it, but I'm questioning it. - [Bar] It's a dish my grandmothers used to make all the time. It's extremely common in
Sephardic Jewish families, specifically from the Balkan diaspora. - [Beryl] I guess that's
not insignificant, but all right, fine. Maybe it was a good idea. - [Bar] We don't use a lot of spices. It's a very simple cuisine and my family has been
cooking it for generation. As a kid, I didn't like it at all. And in my family, in Bulgarian families you're not considered a proper true adult until you start liking
zucchini and eggplants. - I'm putting on my grading glove because as somebody who cuts their
fingers all the time, kitchen safety is cool. Let's peel. Ah, yes, another dry tomato, America strikes again. Is this tooth fine? It barely done anything. All right, hold on. It was this side, all right. Okay, wait, I thought
I knew how to do this, do I know how to do this? What am I doing? Is this how you grate a tomato? What about the skin? What's happening? I don't feel confident. I am confident. If I say I'm confident,
then I am confident. Ah. Oh no, I'm wearing my safety gloves. Okay, we're okay. Yeah. And now I love it. - [Bar] And finally, I'm
considered a proper adult. Using the peels help with the texture, the garlic and the tomato
enhance the flavors, and the lemon helps maintain
the freshness of the zucchini. I don't think a lot of people
know about Sephardic cuisine. There aren't many ways of
maintaining a heritage. You can use language
and you can use cooking. Cooking Anginara, eating Anginara, it's my way of doing something
my family did for centuries. And also it's a way of honoring my elders, which I think it's very important because they're the reason I'm here. People should try it because
it's just plain good. b'te'avón As we say in Hebrew. Thank you for everything. - This dish made my kitchen smell, even though it's technically
a Jewish Bulgarian dish like an Italian kitchen, the tomatoes and the
garlic and the zucchini. I love that it's room
temp served with hot rice. Hot cold combo, I guess not cold, but hot room temp combo. Wow! Even though I was hemming and hawing about having to remove
the seeds from this, I don't know, maybe just like a light de-seeding honestly does seems silly. This dish turned out magically. I love it. What Bar said really does hold true. This dish is simple. There's not a lot of technique going on. There's no spices in here. But at the same time, everything feels very composed and the whole dish feels
very comforting, I guess. Usually zucchini, tomato, and garlic, they're part of the supporting
cast of a dish, right? But here, they're kind of front facing and I think that they're
standing on their own. That's a lot of theater metaphor. These are vegetables
that are often relegated to the background and here
they're on full display and it's great. You don't miss the meat. As I say to my brother-in-law, every time I make him a vegetarian dish and he always says, "No Beryl, the vegetables are good." As far as ease of cooking, this definitely feels like if you're looking to
get into Balkan cooking, this one is a very low entry point and it uses ingredients
that are super common. And I think if you're
somebody who loves vegetables, this is a dish where vegetables shine. And it's like, not to go
back to the theater metaphor, but this is a show starring the zucchini and everybody should go see it. That was a lame ending, but I'm gonna leave it. (bright music) - [Both] Hi Beryl. - My name's Rosita. - And my name's Vita. And we are a mother and a daughter from Suffolk in East Anglia
in the United Kingdom. - But originally, our family comes from a region in southern
Italy called Compania. - [Vita] The dish we want
to talk to you about today is scapece, which is a pickle made
in the south of Italy. There isn't a direct
translation for the name, but we think that it actually comes from the Spanish escabeche, which refers to a pickle
made using vinegar. - [Rosita] Scapece is a fresh pickle that's ready to eat
within a couple of hours, but you can keep it for much longer. It's made with sliced
zucchini that's been fried and then it has this delicious marinade of olive oil, vinegar, mint, and garlic. - If you have leftover mint stems, here's a fun thing to do. When I used to work at
a Jamaican restaurant we would put this inside the simple syrup
liquid to infuse it with the flavor of mint, and we would make mojitos with it. And it's a really good
way to use the stems. Less food waste. We're gonna try a chiffonade. Ah, it's not really rolling. Just kidding. We're just dropping it. Okay. That is not a chiffonade. It kind of is. All right, it doesn't matter. It's chopped mint. - [Rosita] And then
just before you eat it, you put a little bit of salt onto it rather than before you cook it. That way the zucchini keeps
its texture and its shape. - I'm really excited
to use this olive oil. My super made this olive
oil in her basement. And you might think like, "That's weird, basement New York City olive oil." It's really good. So, homemade basement
olive oil from my super. - [Rosita] The mint of the garlic makes the scapece instantly aromatic. - Nice color. - [Rosita] And when you eat it, the outside of the zucchini
has a sweet caramelization and that balances really nicely with that slightly bitter
interior of zucchini. You eat scapece at room temperature so you get the full perfume
and that deliciousness of it. - I feel like I'm always facing a dilemma between two things. The skinny one or the thicker one? I would think skinny because you want them to fry them, be crispy. Oh, that is tiny. But then I think thick because it's gonna sit with the dressing. We're gonna go with this one. - [Rosita] My understanding of scapece, there is a history of it in Rome, but it's much more recognized
as a dish from the south 'cause it's a poor man's dish. - I should be wearing my gloves. It was fine. - [Rosita] Zucchini
grow really abundantly, really plentifully, really
easily in the south. It was a treat for us
growing up in rural Suffolk 'cause it's something nobody else ate. - [Beryl] First, I just fry it. Okay, I'm just gonna fry it. I'm scared. I'm gonna put it in like this. I am brave! - [Rosita] So my dad
would grow the zucchini and my mum would cook it and it would be the very first, very tiny zucchini that she would use. So then obviously when
my children were born I wanted them to enjoy scapece as well. So they would help get the zucchini in and then they'd help sort of
cut them up in their own way, which was a lovely thing
to do and eat together. - For me, I think that scapece connects me to my grandparents. My nana used to grow so
many different fruits and vegetables and I have a lot of memories of him proudly showing off the different things that
he'd grown on the lunch table. My nana passed away during the first wave of the COVID pandemic, and I regularly now visit my
nana with homegrown zucchini and I'll make her small
batches of scapece for her to have over the next couple of days. She's always overjoyed to see
the zucchini that I bring, how many I bring, and how big they are. And she's also overjoyed
for me to get cooking. My nana was the most
amazing vegetable gardener and I admire how he cared for his plants and how enthusiastic he was to make food out of the things that he'd grown. I see that same passion in my mom and I think scapece
perfectly embodies that because it's a food we've passed down from one generation to the next. - It's interesting that
this dish was described as a pickle because I don't
think about a pickled dish as something that you would fry. I think about the Spanish
dish as a pickle, not this. So it's making me think
differently about what a pickle is. I also did a whole video on pickles. "Shameless Self Pug," watch
that one if you like pickles. Also, you might notice
my cool Billy Joel shirt. I just saw Billy Joel in concert. (upbeat music) Obviously this has nothing
to do with the dish. I was just really excited that I saw Billy Joel in
concert because I love him. I guess I'm just gonna
eat it with a spoon. I don't know. Whoa! It's got that flavor of pickliness that you'd expect from the
vinegar and the garlic, but then because the zucchini was fried there's this kind of
interesting cooked crunchiness. I think that the mint is glorious and the garlic together with it, wow, that's yummy. It's very different. I like the little zucchinis as well. They taste kind of the same. They're just tinier, you know? I was definitely a little bit nervous in doing some of the frying. I'm used to the safety of my deep fryer. Wow, look at me being so
brave not using my deep fryer. I said it was brave, I'm scared. Okay, round two. Frying can be scary, but this is a controlled fry. No, I'm brave. I'm good. Oh my God, I'm so scared of everything. The other thing that
made this dish special is the olive oil that the super
of my building made for me and probably some other people
in the building actually, but not my neighbors, because when I told them about it they were like, "We didn't get olive oil." It's a weird thing, but it's a cool thing. I thought that this episode about zucchini has been wonderful, especially 'cause when zucchini grows it grows and we all need tons of recipes to get through it for the season. I hope that some of these inspired you. All of the recipes are in the description. I will see you all in my next video.
