Friends, BBQ & Grilled Zucchini

A quick and easy way to use and savor the flavors of freshly harvested zucchinis is to use them as quick side dish to a BBQ meal. I planted three zucchini plants a couple of weeks ago, and thanks to the recent (scarse) days of sunshine, I was slightly overwhelmed by the speed at which these litle guys grow. Knowing that the smaller ones are much better than their big brothers, I quickly grabbed my harvesting knife and brought some juicy little zucchinis inside. The ironic thing is that now that I finally had fresh homegrown zucchinis, I didn't immediately have a purpose for them. I used the first two to create a lavish ratatouille, with lots of veggies and herbes de provence. But then I still had several left... The solution came in an ideal package; my friends had gathered at our place for some lazy Sunday hanging out. Since the weather was quite nice, and there was a perfectly good BBQ sitting on the terrace with us, we decided to have ourselves a little improvised BBQ dinner! Everyone helped out and provided part of the food; meat and veg was brought over (read: stolen from parents' kitchens), extra beer was put on ice and side dishes were prepared. This is when I remembered my zucchinis! With some extra touches, they turned out to be very tasty! This Sunday proved to be great, once again proving my site's adage: good food, good friends,...great times!

What do you need?

2 or 3 small to mid-sized zucchini (or courgettes, as they're known over here)

olive oil

salt

herbes de provence (provençal herbs; a mixture of herbs used very often to season meat and vegetables in the Provence region of France)

Preparation:

1. Slice the zucchinis into pieces of about 5mm thick.

2. Put them on a large oven tray or plate and drizzle an ample amount of olive oil all over them, while making sure both sides of the slices are covered in oil.

3. Season them with a substantial amount of herbes de provence and salt and leave them to absorb the flavors for a while. I would suggest to let them rest for about an hour, however, I prepared them on site, about 10 minutes prior to throwing them on the BBQ and they tasted great!

4. Grill the zucchini slices on the BBQ for several minutes (medium indirect heat setting), until they're slightly brown in general, and have dark brown grill marks. Serve them immediately.

These go very well with grilled chicken and veal. You could even put them on a burger!