Season any leftover ricotta and form it into quenelles to top the fritters.

Zucchini fritters must be one of the “it foods” right now because they’re featured in both the trendspotting section of the August edition of Food & Wine and in a feature on zucchini in this month’s Everyday Food. Makes sense to me. The zucchini are flooding into markets, farm stands, and CSAs and everyone’s looking for fresh ideas for using them. Zucchini fritters are technically easy to make and well worth the mess.

Both recipes noted above are pretty similar, except the Food & Wine recipe is Mario Batali’s and calls for ricotta, and that spells delicious. My kids will eat just about anything that has ricotta in it and have even asked to be served bowls of fresh ricotta for breakfast. Ignore the fact that the recipe lists sheep-milk ricotta. Maybe you were lucky enough to remember to pick some up at the farmers’ market (it was sold out last week), so I picked up some fresh ricotta made by Liuzzi’s at Whole Foods instead. The kids offered to taste it and make sure it was good enough for fritters. I had to pry their hands off the container before they ate the whole thing. Luckily the recipe only calls for half a cup.

Add batter to the pan, then flatten it until the height is uniform and pull in any unruly edges.

Kids of any age can help you make this dish. Just keep them away from the mandolin if you use it to shred the zucchini. A properly set up food processor with a julienne attachment is a child-safe way to shred zucchini as long as an adult is supervising and zucchini are pushed through the feeding tube with the proper equipment-never hands or a utensil. A child under 10 can zest the lemons, wash the vegetables, measure the flour and stir the batter.

Serve zucchini-ricotta fritters and watch them disappear.

The only modifications I made to Mario Batali’s recipe for Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters in Food & Wine were a dusting of fleur de sel after they’re cooked and the addition of a heaping teaspoon or quenelle of ricotta on each plate along with a sprinkling of fresh basil. Thankfully, he does not ask us to salt and drain the shredded zucchini. Serve with lemon wedges as directed; they need the extra zip. I warmed the remaining ricotta on the stove top and whisked in a little olive oil and lemon zest. Then I formed the mixture into quenelles to top each plate. Why quenelles? Because they’re pretty, and special, and are fun to pronounce. It amuses me to hear my kids say the word, and happy to see them eating their vegetables.

Look for CTC&G at the usual drop sites and enjoy Sustainable Connecticut magazine starting on page 49. Sustainable Connecticut cover photo of Sustainable Farmer Annie Farrell of Millstone Farm by Doreen Birdsell of Doreen Birdsell Studios Photography and Video.

A beautiful new magazine called Sustainable Connecticut has launched. This  special preview in the April issue of Connecticut Cottages & Gardens magazine (CTC&G) profiles local leaders of the sustainable food movement who are inspiring all of us to change. They are creating a wonderful ripple effect that can be felt throughout the state, and beyond. Perhaps you know some of them or they have touched your lives, or maybe even the food you eat.

Video from WTNH’s Good Morning Connecticut show introducing Sustainable Connecticut magazine on Saturday April 2 with Analiese Paik, Founder & Editor of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, and WTNH’s Steve Villanueva.

Sustainable Farmer Sustainable Connecticut magazine begins on page 49 of CTC&G with a beautiful photo of Master Farmer Annie Farrell of Millstone Farm in Wilton with one of their heritage breed hens.  Annie Farrell, the subject of the magazine’s cover story, has spent her life establishing sustainable farms and sharing her knowledge with others as a consultant. Millstone Farm was founded by Betsy and Jesse Fink and they hired Farrell to help them build “a sustainable farm whose mission it is to build a healthy local food system that enhances the natural and social environment” according to the article.

Betsy is an environmentalist and philanthropist and runs the 75-acre farm which has a small CSA and supplies the highest quality fresh produce to top farm-to-table restaurants including the Dressing Room and Le Farm in Westport, Schoolhouse at Cannondale in Wilton, the Boathouse at Saugatuck, and the Barcelona restaurant group. Millstone Farm regularly hosts teachers, students and educational events at the farm where participants can learn directly from Master Farmer Annie Farrell. If you’re a beginning gardener, don’t miss Millstone’s Backyard Workshop on April 16.

From left to right: Bill Taibe, Ryan Fibiger and seated, Alex Gunuey

Farm-to-Table Chefs & Whole Animal Butcher In the Locavore column “Staying Hungry”, I interviewed a few chefs who are leaders in the farm-to-table movement to share their latest news with readers. James Beard award-winning chef and sustainable food pioneer Michel Nischan presented at TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” and was recently elected to Ashoka’s global fellowship of leading social entrepreneurs in more than 60 countries in recognition of his work at Wholesome Wave.

Bill Taibe, chef/owner of LeFarm restaurant in Westport and a James Beard Foundation award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast is finalizing his restaurant’s green certification process and is planning a second restaurant. Alex Gunuey caters farm-to-school meals at the Friends School in Wilton and started Bone A Part to provide discerning canines with gourmet, locavore dog food.

Fairfield County is welcoming two new sustainable food businesses – Mario Batali’s  Tarry Lodge Enoteca Pizzeria is due to open early summer in Westport and Ryan Fibiger, a graduate of Fleischer’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats in Kingston, NY, will be opening a sustainable butcher shop specializing in whole animal (aka nose-to-tail) butchery soon in either Westport or Fairfield. Naturally chef Gunuey will be buying trimmings from Fibiger for his dog food, thereby ensuring that no part of the animal goes to waste.

Lettuce is an excellent early spring crop and easy to care for, just avoid too much sun in high summer advises author Bill Duesing.

In “Spring Lettuce” author and farmer Bill Duesing encourages us to plant some lettuce soon since it’s an excellent early spring crop that likes cool weather. Duesing is Executive Director of the Connecticut Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA) and recommends planting every 2-3 weeks so gardeners can enjoy lettuce through October. CT-NOFA is not just for farmers (I’m a member!) so please take a look at their upcoming workshops and events-one might be just right for you.

John Turenne, Founder & President of Sustainable Food Systems worked behind the scenes in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and is a founding member of Michelle Obama's "Chefs move to Schools" initiative, part of her "Let's Move" campaign to combat childhood obesity.

“The Great School Food Makeover” spotlights the success of The Unquowa School in Fairfield in making over their lunch menu to feature locally sourced foods from sustainable family farms. John Turenne, who helped create Yale’s sustainable dining program, left the university to found Sustainable Food Systems and took on the school as his first client. The Unquowa School has embraced Alice Waters’ edible schoolyard philosophy by not only putting in a school garden, but also by partnering with Sport Hill Farm in Easton to offer a summer farm camp that teach kids from early on where their food comes from and how to plant, cultivate and harvest it. Campers prepare a farm fresh lunch with school chef Peter Gorman on Fridays from food they picked that morning.

Pick up the magazine at the usual drop sites for CTC&G or visit the web site for a digital copy at sustainablethemagazine.com.

Enjoy the hard work of our farmers by seeking out the bounty of Connecticut Grown this spring. Foods that are special to the season like Spring parsnips, early lettuces, and fresh goat’s milk cheeses are a treat.

Displayed on the Ch. 8 set are the following CT Grown foods purchased on closing day of the Westport Winter Farmers’ Market:

• Fresh Spring goat’s milk cheese (chevre) and yogurt from Beltane Farm
• Soft ripened goat’s milk cheese from Beltane Farm called Danse de la Lune
• Cow’s milk and yogurt from Ladies of Levita Road dairy farm
• Certified Organic kale, mesclun greens (mixed salad greens), and flowering tarragon from 2 Guys from Woodbridge farm
• Certified Organic Spring parsnips, carrots, heirloom tomato sauce and bread and butter pickles from Riverbank Farm
• Certified Organic mixed baby greens and spinach from Star Light Gardens farm
• Loin lamb chops and lamb Bolognese sauce from Sankow’s Beaver Brook Farm

Please come back and let us know how you like Sustainable Connecticut magazine and what spring foods you’re enjoying now. Planting a garden? Share your garden photos with us on Facebook.

Watermelon lemonade with backyard mint from "Eat Fresh Food"

Most nights I cook without recipes, but once in a while I feel like trying something new and turn to a trusted cookbook or online recipe source for inspiration. This week my tween suggested we make watermelon lemonade from his birthday present, the cookbook Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs by Rozanne Gold. The recipes in this book have been consistently good and accurate, but I knew the half a cup of honey the recipe called for was just too much. Halving it was perfect and the drink was not only beautiful, but refreshing and something a child could easily prepare thanks to an immersion blender. I could have let him scoop the watermelon out of the rind, but I was in a hurry so I trimmed the rind off with my over sized, heavy gauge chef’s knife and made what the kids called a naked watermelon. It’s so easy to cut when it’s naked!

Indian-Style Green Cabbage from "Eating Local", a cookbook for local food enthusiasts looking do more with their produce

I had a very large head of Chinese cabbage sitting in the fridge and while part of it would be used for cole slaw, the rest needed to be cooked.  After checking for cabbage in the recipe indexes of a few local cookbooks I acquired this summer, I found an interesting one using Indian spices to season shredded cabbage in Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by American’s Farmers by Janet Fletcher and Sur la Table. Shredded cabbage cooks quickly and does not require the addition of water in the pan, as the recipe indicates, if you let it drip dry after washing it. I dislike coconut so I omitted it from the recipe. With all the spices, it was still full flavored and satisfying and quite a beautiful color thanks to turmeric.

Zucchini bread from "101 Cookbooks" is moist and flavorful

Zucchini - I have it coming at me from all directions and I love it. My tween and I made zucchini bread using a very interesting recipe from 101 Cookbooks that included whole wheat flour, poppy seeds, walnuts and candied ginger. We omitted the curry powder and if I had to do it again, I’d add the shredded zucchini at the end, not with the other wet ingredients as the recipe instructs. The batter “broke” after I added the shredded zucchini to the butter, sugar and egg mixture, but did look fine once I added the dry ingredients. Tip: Shred the zucchini and then let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Then squeeze the water from the zucchini, fluff it back up, and measure it for the recipe. The bread is a hit with the whole family and I was glad to use up an enormous zucchini and have two loaves to enjoy. When using very large zucchini, halve it lengthwise and remove the tough seeds by running a large spoon down the center.

Mario Batali's Pennette with Summer Squash and Ricotta

Penne rigate, ricotta, lemons, zucchini, Parmigiano-Regggiano and some fresh herbs are all that are needed to make this simple dish by chef/restauranteur Mario Batali that ran in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. This healthy dinner is a really quick and delicious way to make great use of summer squash and the herbs overflowing in our gardens. Batali recommends under cooking pasta, then finishing it in the pan with the sauce ingredients and a little pasta water. It’s a great technique that really brings the dish together. I used half a pound of whole wheat penne pasta rather than the recommended full pound  and added a bit more zucchini for a heavier vegetable to pasta ratio. Be sure to have some extra cheese at the table as the recipe suggests and don’t be shy with the herbs.

Where do you turn for inspiration when cooking with local, seasonal ingredients?