Pesto Zucchini Roses

When you’ve baked enough zucchini bread, cakes, and muffins to feed an army and there’s STILL more zucchini in the fridge, make these pesto zucchini roses. Mozzarella and pesto join long strips of zucchini inside coils of crisp buttery puff pastry for a summertime twist on our popular pizza roses that’s as easy to make as it is impressive to look at.

The zucchini:

Zucchini is loaded with moisture, so it has the potential to sog out the pastry and prevent it from baking properly. To avoid this, pre-salting the zucchini is key. Line a large baking sheet with paper towels, arrange the zucchini on top in a single layer, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, and let it sit for 15 minutes. The salt draws the moisture out of the zucchini, concentrating its flavor as well as preseasoning it. Make sure to thoroughly blot the zucchini with more paper towels before layering it with the pesto and the puff pastry. It should feel completely dry to the touch.

The puff pastry:

Store-bought puff pastry is brilliant for building stunning desserts and pastry concoctions with relatively little effort. It’s not difficult to work with, but there are definitely a few things to keep in mind. Here are my top tips for getting the most out of that store-bought puff.

1. Thaw it overnight. If you can, thaw the whole box of puff pastry overnight in the refrigerator. A long defrost period at a cool temperature will ensure the puff is evenly thawed without danger of getting too warm and losing its lamination (see below!). If you’re pinched for time, you can express the defrost process by letting the pastry sit at room temperature until it’s pliable enough to unfold and roll out (but still hopefully cold!). This should take about 20 minutes, depending on the temperature of the room—but you’ll want to check it frequently to make sure it’s not getting too warm.
2. Keep it cold. Puff pastry gets its magical puff from lamination: Many thin sheets of dough and butter layered on top of each other. When the pastry goes into the oven, the butter melts, the moisture in that butter expands and evaporates, and this causes the dough to puff; however, if that butter has gotten too warm at any point during the rolling out and cutting process, the pastry won’t puff as well. So preserve your pastry’s “puffability” by keeping it in the refrigerator until just before you’re ready to roll it out, popping it back into the fridge to chill down if it starts to feel sticky at any point while you’re forming the roses, and chilling those roses down before they go into the oven.
3. Bake it well. Puff pastry is designed to be baked until it’s a gorgeous golden brown. In addition to bringing a richer flavor, that deep golden color means that the pastry is actually cooked through. Slightly underbaked cookies might be delicious, but underbaked puff pastry is just gross.

Storage:
These roses are best fresh. No matter how much you’ve worked to eliminate wateriness, the zucchini still carries some extra moisture, which will eventually soften the pastry. If you have leftovers, they can be stored in the refrigerator overnight. I recommend avoiding a completely airtight container, though: Giving the roses a little room to breathe will delay the softening process.

Did you try making this? Let us know how it went in the comments!