Parmigiana di Zucchine

In Campania, when summer arrives and the eggplants give way to an abundance of zucchini, the home cook adapts. This is not a compromise. This is a different dish entirely, lighter and more delicate, suited to the season when you want something substantial but not heavy.

The zucchini must be grilled, not fried. Some will tell you this makes it a lesser parmigiana. They are wrong. The char adds complexity that fried zucchini cannot match. What you lose in richness, you gain in clarity of flavor. Each component remains distinct: the smoky vegetable, the sweet tomato, the yielding mozzarella, the sharp bite of aged Parmigiano.

The technique matters more here than with eggplant. Zucchini is mostly water. If you do not salt it thoroughly and grill it properly, you will have a soggy mess that cannot hold its shape. But when you do it correctly, when each slice is charred and firm, when the sauce has reduced to the proper consistency, when the mozzarella has been drained of its excess liquid, you will understand why Neapolitan grandmothers have made this dish for generations.