It is coming up fast – national Sneak a Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch day is Sunday, August 8.

If you are the lucky recipient of one of these, or if you have your own you want new recipes for, or if you have a giant overgrown zucchini you forgot to harvest until it was the size of a baseball bat on steroids, I’ve got a suggestion for you.

Giant zucchini can be difficult to work with in many of the traditional zucchini dishes. It is thicker, the seeds are large, and both the flavor and texture can be lacking. So you want to use them in a dish where those will be covered up or corrected in one way or another.

I’ve rapidly become a fan of using overgrown zukes in a casserole.

Ingredients:

• 1 baseball bat of a zucchini or 2-4 more moderately sized
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 sausage (I prefer Tofurky vegetarian Italian sausage)
• 1 medium to large onion
• 2-3 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup pank or bread crumbs
• Other vegetables such as peppers if you’d like
• Herbs and spices according to personal preference.

Instructions:

Shred zucchini with a grater or in the food processor. Place in a bowl with some salt and let sit for 5 minutes or so to soften the strands and to release some of the water.

Rinse with water to get the excess salt out, then pour into a towel and squeeze water out of the strands.

Chop onions and sausage. Sautee in olive oil until both are the consistency you prefer.

In a medium to large sized bowl, beat two eggs. Add the zucchini and mix to coat. Add garlic, feta, bread crumbs or panko, parmesan, whatever fresh herbs and spices you’d like. Dill is an obvious choice and works well, but I prefer using paprika, chipotle powder and fresh chopped thyme.

Unceremoniously plop it into an oiled 8×8 baking pan and flatten it out. Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes or until the top begins to brown a bit. Serve warm.