From the recipe archive, first posted last summer, reposting now because not only is it a terrific casserole, it uses up a lot of zucchini, and if your garden is in any way like mine, you have tons of it right now. ~Elise

In my garden, there lives The Beast, a 5 foot tall zucchini plant that puts out 2 full-sized zucchinis a day. Even with all the great zucchini recipes we have, it's hard for three people to consume 14 zucchini a week. (There's also a pattypan squash plant.) So around this time of year I'm always looking for ways to use up my overflowing vegetable drawer of zucchini. This is an easy-to-make strata-like breakfast casserole with grated zucchini, tomatoes, basil, ricotta, and Parmesan. (The tomatoes and basil are growing like mad now too.) Actually I'm not sure what to call it. Breakfast casserole seems to fit because of the eggs, though we ate this for lunch. You could also call it a strata. It's like a frittata but it's baked, not made on the stovetop (though I'm sure you could make a frittata out of it). The inspiration for it comes from a "cuajado", or a baked frittata popular in Sephardic cooking. This isn't a cuajado, but the flavors are there, and they're terrific together.

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With all the hot weather much of the country has been experiencing, we thought we'd suggest a gazpacho, a chilled soup, one that you can make quickly, with minimal use of the stove. Not all gazpachos are made with tomatoes. White gazpacho is a classic dish from Spain, earlier versions dating back to when the Moors controlled Andalucia. This version is made with bread, blanched almonds, green grapes, cucumbers, olive oil, and garlic. Odd combination you might think, but let me assure you, it truly is delicious. There's no dairy. The soup gets body and protein from the blanched almonds. The bread acts as a thickener. The cucumbers are wonderfully cooling.

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Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares a favorite black-eyed pea salad. Perfect for hot summer days! ~Elise

I spent much of my life thinking that black-eyed peas were a Southern thing, and then I worked in an Ethiopian restaurant, where the African clientele told me that black-eyed peas actually come from Africa. Years later, I began cooking Greek food – and imagine my surprise to find all sorts of dishes using black-eyed peas! I have no idea how they became so popular in Greece, but there you go.

This is not any sort of traditional Greek recipe, more of a Greek-inspired side dish or light vegetarian supper I’ve done in various forms over the years. I love black-eyed peas because they cook very fast and need no pre-soaking the way a lot of regular beans do.

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