Christmas is over. Santa didn’t visit here – because we decided long ago, that we would rather be naughty… and buy our own gifts… who needs the fat-chap in the red suit?? 
We had friends visit for dinner last night. We cooked a beautiful rolled-roast of Pork on the barbecue, I made a simple salad of mixed leaves and herbs from the garden, cooked a huge pot of new potatoes and drenched them in butter… and I also made this grilled zucchini salad…
Would I make it again? Oh yes!… though I probably wouldn’t phaff around with the stripping and grilling part. There is only so much hanging around over a hot grill that you can do, before you get really grumpy… or is that just me?
The salty olive/anchovy/feta combination is perfect with the herby zucchini and the pine-nuts add the perfect amount of crunch…
4 – 6 large zucchini – peeled into strips, lengthways roll the strips in a couple of slugs of evoo, then grill them until they are brown on both sides and have softened. Pile them onto a platter
In a jar, combine 1/3 cup evoo
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 anchovy fillets, drained and chopped to bits
a pinch of chilli flakes
1/4 cup of fresh oregano – chopped to bits
You also need:
2 tbsp toasted pine-nuts
1/4 cup black olives – chopped to bits
150g feta cheese – crumbled (I used cows milk feta, because I don’t like goats cheese)
Pile the zucchini onto a platter and sprinkle everything else over top.
I promise you, it tastes a whole lot better than this photo looks!
Our friends, some of whom are notoriously picky eaters, all loved it… most of us had seconds!
Note to Self: The next time I made this, I cut the zucchini into batons instead of ribbons. I rubbed some of the oil/anchovy dressing onto the batons before baking until tender. I also used mint in the dressing, instead of oregano; and chopped, toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts. I also sprinkled fresh mint onto the salad before we ate it. I liked it even better the second time around.
