Zucchini Agrodolce Recipe (2024)

RE: Other vegetables, other herbs: Indeed you can. Look up the recipe for caponata, another Sicilian classic, at cookieandkate.com/caponata-recipe. This also uses an agrodolce base (though less sugary than this recipe, it also has raisins), and you have a choice of mint, parsley, basil. (Rosemary might be assertive in larger quantities, but a little would be fine.)

Can you prepare this recipe with other vegetables such as eggplant?

I think you can accomplish all the conventional oven aspects of "sun drying" with an air fryer, which gives quick and easily controllable results. I prepare tons of zucchini, squash, potatoes etc. and keep it all on hand for all sorts of pasta creations, stir fries or impromptu curries. But I really like the agrodolce part of this recipe also. That's a welcome twist I'll mingle with my other go to's.

How about another herb instead of mint, which I don’t care for? Maybe basil, or rosemary?

This is a great summer dish for when you don't feel like shopping, as many of the ingredients are kitchen staples and likely to be lying around anyway. I've made this a few times from the Prune cookbook with lots of swaps and additions, contingent upon the erratic contents of my pantry. Try throwing an anchovy or two in with the frying oil for depth of flavor! This recipe is also featured on Mind of a Chef with Ms. Hamilton here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybe5DqwZP08

I put the zucchini slices in my dehydrator for two hours and that worked perfectly. I used one of the "too big" garden zucs and the dehydrating served to re-concentrate the flavor. Next time I will cut the sugar in half.

If you have a car, that’s a nice hot place to dry herbs and would probably work well for zucchini too.

As I was frying the millionth tiny, papery, annoying zucchini slice, I was asking myself WHY?? Why, on God's green earth, did I tackle this project on a work night? This is not worth it. This is stupid. I hate this.And it was delicious. And totally worth it. I'd do it again. (Just not on a work night.)Served with an antipasto plate of yumminess and this was the star.

It's the 'dolce' in the recipe title. Leaving it out would be something totally different. Maybe try honey but you need the sweet to balance the vinegar. Failing that, cook something else.

Didn’t add mint, still taste delicious

Didn’t add mint, still taste great!

Do y'all think it would be possible to do the drying part and then freezing the zucchini for later use? I love this recipe, but I'm also always on the lookout for ways to store my superabundance of homegrown zucchini for winter eating, and so far, no luck.

I used the recipe for the syrup part. Making the syrup to get to an actual syrupy consistency took twice as long as the recipe says. It was good. I drizzled it over regular pan-seared squash. The recipe looked like too much effort for a weeknight, and it was for a delivery of squash that I ordered by mistake anyway. Based on reading the comments, I’d try this with eggplant before I’d bother with zucchini because I don’t like zucchini enough for all that work.

Made this a second time. Slicing the zucchini into planks instead of rounds made the frying process so much faster. Two small-medium zucchini and the agrodolce cut in half was perfect for two people. Each step is simple, but this is a HIGH MAINTENANCE dish that needs attention and is literally one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten. Pain to make and totally worth it.

I topped this with some torn burrata and prosciutto and it was PHENOMENAL. Definitely a massive faff, but worth it if you have time to make a bit of an evening of it.

What is a "medium zucchini"? In my world, 6 medium sized zucchini would take up a lot more than two racks.

This is a really delicious way to use zucchini for a refined side dish or appetizer, especially if you are serving those who don’t like the pith of these types of vegetables.

I wouldn't label this recipe as Easy.

Made as directed (except for halving everything) and I loooooved it. Hubby did not adore. No accounting for taste. Maybe slightly less sugar next time, unsure.

I had some zucchini that needed using up but wanted to pair it with Asian food. I used this technique but used rice vinegar, sesame oil, scallions, and sweet soy sauce for the marinade. It was awesome! And next time I have zucchini I’ll try the actual recipe

Slices sticking to rack? A trick to eliminate that. After carefully peeling paper thin dried zucchini, I had a lot of pieces that crumbled and stuck. Trick: I sprayed the rack by itself with a cooking spray. Then wiped it off gently with a paper towel. Then proceeded. Voila NO sticking slices.

A question: Since one must do several batches of drying, which DO take a long time, can you put the dried slices in a vacuum container? I want to do this ahead of time - because I will be too busy to do it the day I prepare the rest of the meal.

This is delicious. You can also use eggplant in the manner of melanzane alla scapece.

This is good. It is similar to "scapece." Maybe it is the same thing.