>> The bounty we enjoy from American agriculture gives us almost unlimited choices when we head for the supermarket or farmers market.

Even better, how about converting a plain garden vegetable into something very special?

Well, our Sharon Profis has an idea on adding a little zing to your zucchini.

♪♪ >> Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables and around summertime when there's a lot of it, I love to make zucchini pie.

So today we're making mini zucchini pies that come together really fast and make for a delicious breakfast or an appetizer.

So to speed up the process what I'm actually using is prepared pie crust.

I took it out of the fridge-let it thaw a little bit- and all you want to do is find some kind of cookie cutter or, in my case, a plastic cup that's just a little bit bigger than the size of your muffin pan.

And I just cut them out and put it right into the pan.

And this recipe makes about ten of these mini zucchini pies.

>> Now, let's work on the filling.

Of course zucchini is our star vegetable so I have four small to medium sized zucchini here.

Now when you're choosing zucchini, what you want to look for is really shiny skin and you want the vegetable to be pretty firm - that's how you know that they're fresh.

Now, I'm going to grate them right onto the cutting board and one little trick that I love to share is that you can actually leave the stem on and use it as a holder as you're grating.

>> I love cooking with zucchini because it has a really sweet delicate flavor.

And the smaller the zucchini, the sweeter it is.

(Grating sound) Zucchini is available year round, but you will mostly see it around May through September when it is actually in season.

And around that time if you go to the farmers market or even the grocery story, you'll see more varieties.

Now here's the thing about zucchini.

It is full of water.

So if you're not going to cook it, you have to do something to get all of that water out.

What I did is I lined a colander with a kitchen towel over a bowl.

>> And what I'm going to do is put all of the zucchini right in there.

And while we prep the rest of the ingredients, I'm salting the zucchini which will help some of the water come out of it.

And after a few minutes we'll be able to wring a lot of that water content out so that when we bake these pies they don't turn into a watery mess.

>> Just make sure that this is well salted.

And we'll set that aside while we prep the rest of the filling.

For the pies, we're complimenting the zucchini with fresh sweet corn.

For the same reason that we removed the water from the zucchini, we're using fresh corn because the canned variety is much too watery.

Perfect!

Adding to that I have half a cup of Monterey Jack cheese.

We're also adding Parmesan Cheese for a little bit of a nuttier flavor.

And a couple of green onions.

I like using green onions in this recipe because it offers that "oniony" flavor, but it's not as strong as a yellow onion or even a red onion.

For a little added freshness, four basil leaves.

Perfect.

Every bite is going to get some basil.

>> For our seasonings, we're keeping it pretty simple.

I have a quarter teaspoon of garlic powder.

For a little bit of a "kick", chili pepper flakes.

You can also use cayenne here.

And now here's what really ties all of the ingredients together cohesively.

And that's Dijon mustard.

Trust me when you're actually eating the pies, you won't really be able to tell that it's in there, but it definitely creates a great flavor for the pie.

♪♪ >> Before we add the eggs, we need to get the water out of the zucchini.

And it's really easy.

Just wrap the towel around.

By now, hopefully, that salt has removed the water.

And squeeze.

This part requires a lot of patience.

You want to get as much water out as possible.

The more you do the better the pies will be.

I think we got all the water out.

>> So, let's put it into the bowl with the rest of our ingredients.

What we want is really dry zucchini.

That's perfect.

Now we can add those eggs.

This is going to bind our pies together.

My mom used to make zucchini pie when I was growing up, It was my favorite thing and you bet when summer came around, she was making zucchini pie right and left.

So this is a dish that is especially near and dear to my heart.

>> Now, all that's left to do is fill up our mini zucchini pies.

And even though there is already plenty of cheese inside, I can't help but add a little bit more parmesan right on top so that they brown beautifully.

These will go in the over at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until they are completely set and browned.

I pulled the pies out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.

And to remove them, you just run your knife around the edges and they should pop right out.

Look at how cute they are!

Our last one is out and now all that's left to do is eat.

Mmm-hmm!

♪♪ >> Squash family members including Zucchini were well known in the Americas hundreds of years ago, but the genetic mutation that gives us the current variety of zucchini was developed in Italy in the 1800's.

From there it made its way to the United States and became the vegetable of choice for legions of home gardeners.