[Sca-cooks] Ode to the summer squash

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

I volunteered to be recipe wrangler for my local sustainable agriculture
co-op, and this week I'm working on summer squash, corn and tomato recipes.
I just got done typing in this passage from Wavery Root, and had to share.
I love the comment made about arriving at a conclusion of perfect food!
Christianna

“Summer squashes – reservation made for possible errors in nomenclature,
such as the disagreement about the turban squashes, which some naturalists
put in one category, some in the other – include the familiar yellow or
orange crookneck; the yellow straight-neck, which is the same vegetable
straightened out into a small warty club; the British custard marrow, which
looks like a round, thick, whitish or yellow cushion with scalloped edges
(despite nearly four hundred years of continuous cultivation it has never
become particularly popular); the oddly shaped and brilliantly colored
turban squashes; the pineapple or pattypan squash; the cocozelle; and the
internationally popular zucchini.  They share a number of characteristics:
they grow quickly, must be picked unripe before they have time to harden,
and must be eaten without much delay, for they do not keep well.  In some
opinions also, they lack taste.  “They call for help from without to augment
their flavor, for instance from cream, cheese, rice, tomatoes or meat
stuffings,” says Dictionnaire de l’Académie des Gastronomes.
	The French gastronomic writer James de Coquet has come to the defense of
the summer crookneck squash (courgette in French), explaining that one
reason why some people find it lacks taste is that they do not know how to
prepare it.  The mistake is made, he says, of peeling it completely; only
the outer layer of the skin, he maintains, should be cut away, for the inner
layer is the tastiest part of the fruit.
	Quoting the opinion of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie des Gastronomes cited
above, M. de Coquet called it “a slanderous charge.”
	"The summer squash [he argued] is a foundling which is little respected
It
is considered as a neutral substance, made to carry flavors which are not
directly acceptable on their own, like garlic or onion
The summer squash
demands no help from without ... We must be living in an epoch in which
discretion does not pay, since it is reproached for the subtlety of its
taste.  To pretend 
 that foods are to be valued in proportion to the
intensity of their flavor is to arrive at the conclusion that the finest of
all dishes is pickled herring.  
 Summer squash appeals only to
connoisseurs, who eat it poached and touched with butter, or chopped and
sautéed raw in oil.  No help from without, no other ingredients, nothing but
this simple little squash.  It brings deliciously to the table all the
freshness and the charm of your vegetable garden.” ”
From: "Food" by Waverly Root