Name: Zucchini Slice
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 1 slice, about 20 squares
Cuisine: Australian
Ingredients: 4 medium zucchini (about 600g), grated; 1 tsp salt; 150g bacon, rind removed, finely diced; 1 brown onion, finely diced; 1 cup (150g) self-raising flour; 5 eggs, lightly beaten; 1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil; 1 1/2 cups (150g) grated tasty cheese; 1/4 cup grated parmesan; freshly ground black pepper

Zucchini slice is a lunchbox staple for a reason: it holds together well enough to eat cold with your hands, it reheats without drying out, and it uses up the zucchini glut that starts hitting the shops and home gardens from around now through summer.

The one step that actually matters here is squeezing the water out of the grated zucchini. Skip it and the slice turns soggy in the middle no matter how long you bake it, because zucchini is mostly water and that water has to go somewhere. A clean tea towel twisted tightly around the grated zucchini gets most of it out in one go.

Self-raising flour is what gives this its slightly cakey, firm texture rather than a wet frittata-like one. If you've only got plain flour, mix in 2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup to make your own.

This version uses bacon, but it's easy to make vegetarian by leaving it out and adding a bit more cheese or some chopped sun-dried tomato for flavour. Either way, let it cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting so the slices hold their shape instead of falling apart.