Grilled Zucchini with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts

I got in a lot of trouble during my semester abroad in London. 

Don’t get too excited now, it wasn't that kind of trouble. Not the locked up abroad, or girls gone wild, or can’t-remember-what-happened-last-night kind of trouble. My life is about as R rated as Dora the Explorer, sorry to disappoint. 

The trouble I had was in my everyday conversations. Whoever thinks that English in England is anything like it is here in America, I have to tell you how very wrong you are. For the most part, adding a “u” in the word “colour,” or saying “toilets” instead of the American term “bathrooms,” or figuring out that “pavement” meant “sidewalk,” and that “torch” meant “flashlight”—not too hard to handle. But in the kitchen it wasn’t as easy. For me, the conversations that would get me in the most trouble were always the one’s revolving around cooking. And not just because I had to spend an embarassing amount of time figuring out how to convert 425 degrees Fahrenheit into Celsius every time I went to bake a potato. 

For one: the word “caloric”? It doesn’t exist, across the pond it’s: “calorific.” Which is actually kind of awesome. Maybe it's just me, but being calorific doesn’t sound nearly half as bad as being caloric. It almost sounds like a good thing. Would you rather: "I ate a whole slice of cheesecake today, it was so caloric!" OR "I ate a whole slice of cheesecake today, it was so calorific!" Yeah, definitely better the second way. Especially if Tony the Tiger were the one saying it. Eat this delicious sugary cereal—It’s calorific!!

The second problem is that French words seem to make far more of an appearance in English cooking than they do in American. I get it, the French like to cook. They’re quite good at it in fact. That’s what Julia Child taught me—or at least, what watching the movie Julie and Julia taught me. And to be fair, we have our fair share of French words in our cooking vocabulary too: we do “sauté” and eat “hors d’ouevres” after all. 

But in England, it’s more than just a few phrases. They “fondue” and “sauté” like the best of us, but Zucchinis aren’t zucchinis: they’re “courgettes.” Eggplants are “aubergines.” Cookies are "biscuits." The list goes on. 

It makes it really difficult to ask for things in London's grocery stores without sounding a little like an idiot and a lot like a foreigner. 

So for those of you in England, please do enjoy this courgette recipe. It’s a fantastic summer side dish, it's delicious, and, you’ll be pleased to know, it’s not very calorific either.

Grilled Zucchini with Goat Cheese and Pinenuts

Serves 4-6

6 zucchinis, ends trimmed, cut lengthwise into ½ inch wide slices

6 tablespoons olive oil, divided

½ cup pine nuts

4 ounces goat cheese or feta, crumbled

¼ cup basil, chopped

_1/8  cup mint, chopped

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Drizzle zucchini with 4 tablespoons olive oil. Toss to coat. Place zucchini on grill and cook until tender, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Grill marks should appear on both sides. Remove from grill, spread on platter for serving and keep warm. 

Heat a dry nonstick pan over medium heat. Toast pine nuts in the pan for about 2-3 minutes, shaking the pan frequently to avoid burning and to ensure even browning.  Remove from heat and sprinkle over zucchini.

Add goat cheese, basil, and mint. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.