This is a truly easy dish to make and amazingly delicious, show casing the flavors of summer zucchini, squash and basil. I served this as a coffee table nibble with drinks but it would also make a nice lunch reincarnated as an open faced sandwich with a poached egg, or as a smorrsbrot with grilled shrimp or a slice of smoked salmon.
My recipe made about 3 cups worth of this, but end quantities will very much depend on the size of your veggies.
3 zucchini
3 yellow summer squash
1 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 bunch basil
Salt and white pepper to taste
Peel and smash the garlic cloves, wash the vegetables well.
Put the olive oil and the garlic in a large skillet over very low heat. While the oil heats, shave the vegetables into thin ribbons with your vegetable peeler.
As soon as the oil starts to shimmer, add the zucchini and squash ribbons and stir to combine. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes then cover and turn off the heat. Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
While the veggies are cooling down in the oil, remove all of the basil leaves from the stems and roughly chop them. Put them in a large bowl,
Using tongs, remove the vegetable ribbons from the oil onto your chopping board, shaking off the excess oil as much as possible. Reserve the garlic oil for other uses such as vinaigrettes.
Roughly chop the ribbons into bite sized pieces and add them to the bowl with the basil.
Place the 3 confit garlic cloves on your chopping board along with a quarter teaspoon of salt. Using the flat side of a knife, mash the salt and garlic together and then chop into a paste. Add to the bowl.
Stir all ingredients together well and then add some additional salt and white pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature with crackers or baguette rounds that you have shallow fried in some of the reserved garlic oil to which you have added an additional peeled clove of garlic.
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