Zucchini Muffins

Zucchini Muffins served this morning with focaccia, coppa di Parma and mellon, fresh fruit and berry salad, insalata Caprese, yogurt and muesli

This is the time of year when everyone in Italy is trying to figure out new ways to use zucchini.  A few years ago, when I planted twenty plants, I would find that whatever I had forgotten to pick or had not seen the day before had developed into a football or basketball by the next day.  In Gina DePalma's book Dolce Italiano there is a fantastic recipe for zucchini and olive oil cake. I have made it several times and it's always a huge hit.  This time, I decided to make a slightly different recipe for zucchini muffins.

3 cups grated zucchini/corgettes

2/3 cup melted butter

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons baking soda

pinch salt

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground

1/2 cup nuts ( I used hazelnuts)

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat your oven to 175 C or 350 F

In your mixer bowl, mix together sugar, eggs and vanilla

Add zucchini, butter, and mix at low speed.  Sprinkle over this mixture the salt and baking soda.

In a seperate bowl, mix the cinnamon, nutmeg and flour.  Add this, with the mixer at a low/medum speed, spoonful by spoonful to the zucchini/egg mixture.

Fold the nuts and raisins into the batter by hand.

Fill a buttered and floured muffin tin.  This recipe makes 12 muffins. 

Buon Appitito.