Starter - Crostini with minted courgettes (Two Greedy Italians)

I made this as a starter to a three course meal that I cooked for my family, I made the starter and main course and my mum made a beautiful bread and butter pudding for dessert. I thought I would show the starter and main course separately, as it would mean two posts that are more concise than just long!

This is from the Two Greedy Italians by Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo, a cookbook that I got for my birthday. There are so many meals I want to make from this; pretty much every recipe, but I ended up picking the first recipe of the book! It's a simple starter that requires little effort but can still appear impressive and is definitely tasty!

For 4 people.

Ingredients

1 large courgette, thinly sliced (or you could use a peeler to get wafer thin slices)

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

1 garlic clove, very finely chopped

10 mint leaves, chopped. Plus extra for garnish

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 ciabatta loaf, sliced (you may need to use more if you're cooking for more people!)

a handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced

Preheat the oven to 200C

Peel/slice the courgette and arrange on a baking tray, sprinkle with a little salt and drizzle with oil. Cook for 10 minutes until golden.

While the courgettes are cooking, you can make the dressing. Mix the olive oil, garlic, mint leaves, vinegar and a sprinkling of black pepper in a bowl.

When the courgettes are nicely browned, add to the dressing and mix. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes or so.

While it is marinating, pop the sliced ciabatta under the grill until toasty and golden.

When the ciabatta is cooked, arrange a couple of slices on a plate and top with the courgettes, a drizzle of dressing, a few cherry tomatoes and finish with a garnish of mint leaves! I also roasted some portobello mushrooms to have with it, and just roasted them with a bit of garlic oil and had on the side of the crostini.