Zucchini Flan

First course of the Papal Conclave dinner menu, this dish turned out to be pretty tasty, although I'd do some things differently the next time I make these. This recipe is adapted from myitalianflavors.com.

To serve: do a whoosh of the cannellini beans, set your flan on top of that, then add your sauce.

Zucchini Flan with Cannellini Bean Velouté with a Fondue Sauce

Zucchini Flan:

• about 3 medium zucchini

• 1 shallot

• 2-4 oz heavy cream

• 1/4 c grated parmesan

• 6 leaves of basil

• 2 eggs

• 1 T flour

• 1 T butter

• salt and pepper to taste

First, dice up both the zucchini and shallot in rough chunks in a tablespoon (or so) or olive oil until they are tender. Let it cool for about 10 minutes.
Separate your eggs. Take your butter and grease 6 ramekins generously, then powder with your flour. This will help your flan come out of the pans... flanlessly.
Preheat your oven to 325 F.

Add your zucchini and shallot to a blender or food processor with the basil, egg yolks (only!), parmesan, salt and pepper, and cream. If your mixture is very thick, add a little more cream. Pulverize this until smooth. Let cool a bit more.

Separately, whip your egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Boil some water for the water bath.

Fold in your zucchini mixture, little by little into your egg whites. Be gentle and take your time. It's important to keep the air in your egg whites.

Divide your zucchini and egg white mixture into the ramekins equally, filling up about 3/4 of the way. Set your ramekins in a larger baking pan and fill with your hot water.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until the edges are set and the middle is a little jiggly.
When cool, turn over on to your serving plates.

Cannellini Bean Velouté

• 2 cans of cannellini beans (white kidney beans)

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1 shallot

• 1 c. vegetable broth

Dice your shallot and garlic. Add shallots to a pan with olive oil over medium heat. When the shallots turn slightly translucent, add the garlic and cook till fragrant. Add salt and pepper and any other preferred herbs - I like the Italian seasoning blend, but oregano and thyme alone would be good too.
Drain your beans and add those to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add your beans to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. A squeeze of lemon works well too.

Fondue Sauce

• 8 oz cheese (parmesan, taleggio)

• 1/2 c. milk

Set up your double boiler ( I use a heat-safe bowl over a pot of boiling water). While the water heats, grate your cheese. Add to your double boiler bowl. Add the milk. Let it melt.

There are other schools of thought on this, like make a bechamel. That's totally acceptable and would definitely produce a rich and decadent sauce. Here's how to do that if you're interested in the extra steps.

Bechamel:
Ditch the double boiler and opt for a pot. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Once slightly amber, add 2 tablespoons of flour. Let this cook until the mixture turns light brown.
Add 1 c of milk, gradually. Stir frequently to get rid of any lumps of flour.
Once smooth and starting to thicken, add a pinch of nutmeg and your cheese. Let it melt.

Serving it Up:

Find the right plate. I have these salad plates that have a little lip on the side that worked out well.

Put a swoosh of the cannellini bean puree on the bottom of your plate or bowl.
Set the flan on top of that.

Top the entire plate with the cheese fondue.

And enjoy.

The Story...

If you haven't seen the brief blog post about the Papal Conclave Sunday dinner, take a peek here.

If you're not so interested, the gist is this: My friend found the menu for Pope Leo's post-conclave dinner and it looked delicious and totally interesting for a Sunday dinner.

This recipe in particular looked daunting to me as I wasn't sure what kind of consistency we'd have at the end of this journey. These little "flans" are more like zucchini soufflés in texture, fluffy, kind of eggy, but totally delicious. The beans on the bottom and the cheese on top is really lovely and savory. They kind of ground the zucchini which is otherwise light and fluffy. All in all, I'd cook these again.

I will say that the dinner table grew awfully quiet for this first course. That's one of my favorite things. The table is filled with conversation and then the next moment, quiet as everyone digs in.

A special shoutout to my Dad who provided the ramekins!
We enjoyed this with a lovely pinot noir.

Here's where I messed up and what I'd do differently

I fully confess that while I did grease each ramekin, I forgot the flour! As a result, they did not pop out of the pans as expected. That didn't hinder the taste at all but I do suggest making sure you do that! Luckily, we had that cheese sauce to smother the top and make it pretty.