- 4 courgettes
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a few leafs of mint
- 4 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
Italians love their greenies just as much as they love their pasta, fish and meat. Put the right dressing on them and they can be as moreish as a piece of cake.. and I am not joking. After freshness the key to vegetables bursting with flavour is a good dressing.
Char-grilling and marinating is one of the best ways to get the best out of your vegetables.
You can prepare them in advance: the longer they marinate the better. That’s why I often cook them like this when I have a dinner party; they go well with fish and meat and you will be surprised by how people will help themselves to more!
On this occasion I cooked courgettes. The marinade is the classic Italian one: olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic. A few leafs of mint will make the courgettes even more aromatic and they will taste gorgeous. And that’s a promise!
Method:
Wash and slice the courgettes about 3 mm thick. Then sprinkle them with salt.
After a few minutes dab them with some kitchen paper in order to absorb the excess moisture
Put a large pan or a griddle pan over a high heat for 2-3 minutes
Using kitchen paper grease it with a little oil
Put the courgettes over the hot pan and cook them for about a minute or two each side until they get a slight brownish colour
In a serving dish mix the olive oil, vinegar and garlic and mint. Dip the courgettes into the marinade and leave them for at least a couple of hours to marinate.
These courgettes couldn’t taste any better!
Let's go back to how food used to be, made from wholesome, good ingredients. Let's embrace the slow food movement.
Taking time to cook yourself a decent meal should always come as a priority. After all we are what we eat! 
This is all I love about Italian cooking: simple yet so delicious! Who wouldn’t tuck in that beautiful plate of chargrilled courgettes?
Thank you Nora!
Questo piatto è veramente delizioso, lo preparo anch’io e devo dire che a casa va a ruba! Un contorno leggero e gustoso, brava! Un abbraccio!
I love this simple, grilled vegetable dish… that grill looks very useful, I should look around for one as well.
Simple, fresh and delicious!
Hi Alida. I have only recently started appreciating courgettes. I think they do well with a bit of marinade as they take up the flavour so well. Lovely and healthy and perfect both in itself and mixed into so many other salads, couscous etc
love them! is it the “a la scapece” way? always forget this prepatration for courgettes which I tried before and truly adore. thank you for this post! is there any way to subscribe to your posts by mail?
I don’t know the scapece recipe (will check that out!). I have just marinated the courgettes and added some mint.
I had to remove the “follow by email” widget as it wasn’t working for some reason. I need to check that out again. Other ways to follow me are facebook, twitter or pinterest. X
This is my favourite way to season vegetables!! My balsamic is always ready for spicing up my food!