Zucchini Carpaccio, two versions

Last night a group of friends came over for some food and watch a great film. We were 13 in total (plus 5-month old twins and a 7-month old girl), and I wanted to food to be light and summery. I served them Johanna's wasabi and caviar potatoes, a version of Alanna's beetroot pesto, my small beetroot & blue cheese tartlets, and blue cheese and raisin Danish pastry rolls, and two versions of zucchini carpaccio. As for sweets, I had made a version of Dagmar's mocca pavlovas, and K. made a large batch of his brilliant canelés. We also had five types of frozen desserts: Vietnamese coffee ice cream, Gooseberry sorbet, Coconut sorbet, Blackcurrant sorbet and Watermelon sorbet. All home-made :)

I'll share the frozen dessert recipes soon, as well as wax lyrical about Alanna's beetroot pesto (I simply cannot have two beetroot posts in a row, can I?) and Dagmar's choco-coffee pavlovas. Here are my versions of zucchini carpaccio. Although the zucchini carpaccio recipe de jour - according to Kalyn - is Clotilde's version with crumbled goat cheese and poppy seeds or Courgette au Coquelicot en Carpaccio, I relied on a recipe from Food Network. I had two medium sized zucchinis, one green, one yellow, and both pretty gorgeous. I went Mediterranean with the green zucchini, and slightly Arabic with the yellow one and liked them both equally (using sumac instead of lemon for the required sharp element). Which one would you prefer?

Green Zucchini Carpaccio with Rocket



1 medium-sized green zucchini
Maldon sea salt
black pepper, coarsely ground
extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
parmesan shavings
rocket leaves, torn into pieces

Slice zucchini into very thin rounds either with a sharp knife or mandoline (the latter is much easier). Overlap the zucchini disks in one layer, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Garnish with parmesan shavings and rocket.
Serve immediately.

Yellow Zucchini Carpaccio with Sumac & Mint



1 medium yellow zucchini
Maldon sea salt
black pepper, coarsely ground
extra virgin olive oil
sumac
fresh mint leaves
Parmesan shavings

Slice zucchini into very thin rounds either with a sharp knife or mandoline (the latter is much easier). Overlap the zucchini disks in one layer, season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sumac, garnish with parmesan shavings and fresh mint leaves.
Serve immediately.

BLAST FROM THE PAST
A year ago I wrote about forageing for honey-coloured cloudberries. Two years ago I reviewed reviewed Alexandra Antonioni's book "Eat Me: Love, Sex and the Art of Eating" and was amazed to see that the author herself popped by to leave a comment.