Zucchini Crisps
From Ellie Krieger

These little guys almost don’t seem substantial enough to call a recipe.  I mean, it’s 6 ingredients, 5 of which are pantry staples, and John and I managed to down the entire batch in under 30 seconds as an afternoon snack.  But on the other hand, I come from a zucchini-loving family and have seen it cooked a myriad of ways, yet I’ve never once stumbled upon this method.  Until now.

Zucchini is oddly in stores right now, which confuses me because I thought it was a summer-only thing, and I generally try to buy seasonally.  But even Aldi has it, and heaven knows Aldi isn’t exactly going out of their way to stock produce for year-round recipe enjoyment (seriously Aldi, stock some freaking jalapenos for once, please???).  Anyhow, I had a zucchini laying around so I started browsing for simple recipes.  These fit the bill, and I whipped them up as an afternoon snack.  Even John, who’s not the biggest zucchini fan, couldn’t stop eating them.

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used the green can, I’m sure freshly grated would be good, just make sure it’s grated, not shredded)
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 tsp coarse salt (if you only have finely ground salt, use 1/8 tsp)
• a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Slice zucchini into 1/4-inch thick rounds.  I used a mandolin, mainly because I own one and once you own a mandolin a large chunk of your life is spent looking for things to slice.  I’m sure a knife would work too, just try to keep the size consistent.
3. In a large bowl toss zucchini with olive oil.
4. In a small bowl mix Parmesan, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
5. Dip each round into the breading mixture, pressing down to make the coating stick.
6. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.  Place each round on the baking sheet in a single layer.  They can be close together, as long as they’re not overlapping.
7. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until crisp.  Mine were perfect at 30 minutes.
8. Remove with a spatula and serve immediately.

She says it serves 4.  The 2 of us downed them in about 30 seconds…