Broiled Zucchini (get pdf)

  I checked our zucchini out back yesterday, and realized that I'd better start picking them before they got too big to carry! I have several monsters, and I'm sure there's more, hidden among the leaves. I picked the largest one I saw, and started thinking what I wanted to do with it. I was getting a bit late for dinner, and was concocting a wing-it recipe using ingredients I already had on hand. I had recently made ichiban eggplant, and thought I'd do something similiar.

 Ingredients (none are measured, you can pretty much wing it!)

1 zuchinni
salt
black pepper (freshly ground)
Italian seasoning
olive oil
garlic powder
cheese (shredded)
deli sliced pork
balsamic glaze

 As this was a large zucchini, I hacked off a chunk, peeled it, cut it into spears, and salted it. I let the spears rest for around 15 minutes to get some of the moisture out, then rinsed and dried them. It looks like this at about 15 minutes. 

 Put the spears in a bowl, spray some olive oil on them, and mix well.
 Add grould black pepper (to taste) and mix. Add Italian seasoning (to taste) and mix.
 Lay these out on a cookie sheet, outside facing up.


 Broil (higest rack possible) until the outside is slightly browned.
 Flip the spears and return to the broiler until that side is browned.

 Remove from the broiler, and add balsamic glaze to each spear.

 I was looking around for a topping, and thought bacon would be ideal. However, our bacon was frozen and I didn't feel like thawing it out for a few slices. I had some deli sliced pork...

 Add the deli sliced pork (or bacon, or whatever your imagination can envision) to the tops.

Add some shredded or grated cheese on top. I didn't feel like grating, but had some shredded cheddar available, so I used that.
Return to the broiler until the cheese melts.
Remove and serve!

  I was very happy with this experiment. I had used rosemary and basil in my eggplant recipe, but didn't on this one. Adding these would have been a plus.
 Bacon would have been a welcome topping (everything IS better with bacon!) but the deli pork was pretty good!
 Grated asiago instead of my packaged shredded cheddar would have just made it that much better.
 The zucchini kept it's firmness (not a fan of soggy zucchini) and was welcome on my dinner plate.

  My sister made this, tweaking the toppings to what she had laying around. By the looks of it, It's gotta be a winner!    

    

 

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