Monday, July 23, 2007

Zucchini Carpaccio

zucchinicarpaccio

Monday, monday, glorious monday! Still on vacation, thankfully. Here's a nice little summery starter. I like having small, vegetarian starters now that we use the barbecue so much and usually serve lots of meat for the main course. In fact, I like small, vegetarian starters pretty much all the time - it's nice starting the meal with something really light. This is very flavorful too, and additionally, it looks very pretty. Above all, it takes about five minutes to make, so even the most hazzled host can do it. You could even do a much bigger version on a pretty plate, for a buffet.

Zucchini Carpaccio
Serves 4 as a small starter

1/2 zucchini
20 gram västerbottensost or other sharp cheese (a young parmesan would be nice)
1/2 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil
sea salt
1/2 tbsp crema di balsamico

Slice the zucchini very finely on a mandolin, and arrange on four small plates. Drizzle with rapeseed oil and crema di balsamico, and top with a scattering of sea salt and thinly sliced cheese.

Recipe in Swedish:
Zucchinicarpaccio

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anne
Is crema de balsamico the same as balsamic glaze that I can buy in some bigger supermarkets in the UK?
http://www.greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.com

Anne said...

I'm not completely sure, not having seen balsamic glaze, but I'm sure it's similar enough! Just a thicker, sweeter balsamic vinegar, usually sold in small squeeze bottles. Or you could make your own, by reducing balsamic vinegar and honey until it's thickened. :)

Kalyn Denny said...

Looks delicious! I'm just starting to get zucchini in my garden and looking for ideas to use them.

Deetsa said...

a beautiful use of those sweet young zukes. It sounds wonderful. Perfect summer dish!

winedeb said...

Nice Anne - good to have a new way to serve the zukes as they are in full harvest now. I come home from the farmers market with loads of them and then stand there and think - what am I going to do with all of these?

Amelia Ames said...

I was going to ask the same thing about the crema de basalmico. Do you do equal parts of honey and vinegar? My garden is just now working on another batch of zucchini, and I do love it raw, so this recipe sounds great to me.

Nikki said...

I think you just made up a word, Anne! Hazzled! :) That's ok; it's your blog and you can make up as many words as you like! Ha.

Looks very good and much healthier than starting with a bag of chips. It's pretty, too.

Anne said...

Amy - you can try with equal parts, or a little more vinegar than honey :) It's basically just a sweetened balsamico reduction. I get mine from the supermarket :)

Nikki - haha, well I think I'll leave it like that then :)

Bokomaten.. said...

SO nice with small dishes that doesn´t take much energy to make when you want a simple startet to a more complicated main course or when you are pressed with time. Or just want to sicialize more.

Brilynn said...

My garden will soon be overrun with zucchini and this will be an excellent use for it!