Recently, I’ve had no appetite for the standards: chicken, beef, pork, even shrimp, bore me. And they are everywhere, in every grocery store, on every takeout menu, in every recipe search. How is it that a nation as big as ours has such a small repertoire of meats? One of my earliest childhood memories is a market in Provence; I was about six or seven years old when I saw skinned rabbits on sale for the first time. 

 

Meat hasn’t really bothered me since, especially since I grew up eating venison, pheasant, and duck that my dad would bring home every now and then. What bothers me is how limited I feel on a day to day basis when I want to branch out. I think of the supermarkets in Rome, how even the plastic-wrapped meat aisles included options like veal, rabbit, mutton, and more. We just don’t eat like that in America, at least not enough of us do for the big guys to cater to diversified diets.

I was feeling this sentiment rather urgently the other day while I was brainstorming a menu for a small dinner party. I just couldn’t bring myself to cook another boring piece of meat, so I didn’t. Instead, I found inspiration on Amanda Hesser’s food52 site: these delicious zucchini latkes. I felt that the cakes would serve as a sort of homemade veggie burger, rich and thick enough to serve as a main dish. I used three large zucchini, two potatoes, some parsley, and lots of lemon zest in the cakes. I added two eggs since I’d essentially doubled the recipe, so it ended up requiring about a half cup of bread crumbs to hold it together. S&P on top, and I tossed them in a pan with heated olive oil and butter.

Wanting to bring some color to the spread, I chose a side dish that I could broil in the oven: roasted grape tomatoes and garlic. The dish was simple enough, requiring me to check in on them only periodically as I stood over the stove, frying my zucchini.

We ended up with a very lovely spread: the zucchini cakes and tomatoes, as well as a loaf of bread, some peanuts (I was craving salt), and some charcuterie with cheese. With some light white wine, the meal was extremely refreshing and satisfying – both in terms of my palate and my mental well-being. We were so full, in fact, that no one had room for dessert!