Recipe Review: Summer Squash Carpaccio

I was inspired two-fold this morning when I saw my friend Becky posting about squash and my new favorite blogger, Jane Lear, writing about smothered lettuce.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a picnic hosted by my coworker, when I unfortunately had to work right up until the party. In my endless search for easy and impressive cold appetizers, I found the mother load... summer squash carpaccio

Now I love cheese and lemon and chances are that any dish involving a combination of these two is a winner in my book. The recipe is from Food Network and very well may be the BEST recipe I've every taken from their site. Check it  out:

Thinly slice yourself 1 yellow squash and 1 zucchini and arrange on a plate (a mandolin works best, but unfortunately since I am poor/a beginning cook I do not own one. I just thinly sliced circles, but long strips look pretty too)


Drizzle with minced olive oil and copious amounts of lemon juice and sprinkle any combination of fresh mixed herbs (I used basil, oregano, parsley and garlic) and shallots or garden onions.

Season that layer with salt and pepper and grate cheese, like Parmesan or pecorino, over the top.

Let it sit in your fridge. (This is the best part) The lemon juice cooks the zucchini so you can make it 8 hours ahead or 3, and it still turns out wonderful!!

I got a ton of compliments on this dish and so many people asked me for the recipe. Since is was SO easy I didn't give the recipe out because I pretended that it was SO HARD.

...sneaky.