Crispy Zucchini Pancakes

If you've planted zucchini in your garden, this is the time when you're probably getting overwhelmed with an abundance of these prolific summer squashes. Zucchini didn't make the cut for my limited planter space, but my local vegetable market had a box brimming with tender emerald squash, and I couldn't resist loading up.

One of my earliest cooking memories is of making zucchini pancakes in kindergarten, and they've long been a nostalgic comfort food of mine. I put my own twist on it a number of years ago, creating a Fluffy Zucchini Pancake recipe. It's delicious, but I've always envisioned a zucchini pancake that's moist and tender in the center with crisp tendrils of caramelized zucchini forming a crust around the edges.

That's exactly what I've achieved with this variation. It's not so much an improvement as a different recipe using similar ingredients. With a texture somewhere between a light, crispy zucchini fritter and a gooey zucchini pancake, it's a delicious hybrid that uses just enough batter to hold the squash in a delicate matrix loaded with savory cheese and sweet scallions. 

Salting the zucchini is the key to getting the pancakes crisp. This extracts the excess water, preventing the pancakes from getting soggy and allowing you to pack a lot more zucchini into each one.

Enjoy these crispy zucchini pancakes as a delicious appetizer, side dish, or even as a light meal!