Crostini with Grilled Vegetable Tapenade

 We have so much to be proud of with all of our children, and look forward to celebrating their successes and accomplishments.  One of those moments brought us back to New York city this week, where Ben had 2 shows opening. First we joined him at the James Fuentes Gallery in the Lower East Side. It was a wonderful evening - so beautiful and such great energy about his work.
On  Thursday night, his second show opened at the Martos Gallery in Chelsea. There was a lot of buzz around that show too, with a recommendation :  9 things to do in New Yorks Ar/?t World before Jan. 16  and an interview

As always, we ate a lot of good food on our visit. We are so often inspired by food that we eat while traveling.  The secret to duplicating a complex, sophisticated restaurant meal is to start with a simple base, like a grilled steak or scallops and serve it with a great sauce. We have a bit of product development to do over the next few weeks because these sauces pictured here were delicious!!

 When you are in Chelsea, visit the Red Cat, we had a great lunch there.  In the Lower East Side, we loved 'inoteca.  Also had some delicious wine and cheese at  88 Orchard  before the opening.




 
Coming home is always a let down.  You open the refrigerator and yikes!??!!?!  Faced with all of the leftovers and dregs (of Christmas!!) I decided to take the best of the vegetables that I had, added a lot of fresh herbs for a marinade and made a grilled vegetable tapenade to serve with goat cheese on crostini.
   We took it for friends for dinner on Saturday night and had it in wraps for a light dinner on Sunday night.



Grilled Vegetable Tapenade with Goat Cheese on Crostini


This marinade/vinaigrette is a version of pesto that is so versatile. Make a big jar of it and use it often, as we do for this dish.
Marinade:
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh herbs, chopped (try a combination-parsley, basil, fennel, sage, tarragon work well)
1 shallot, peeled
1 large garlic clove, peeled
1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

2 tbsp chopped walnuts
salt & pepper, to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and puree.

Grilled vegetables:
1 large eggplant, halved lengthwise

3 portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 each yellow, orange and red pepper, cored

1 tomato
1 red onion, quartered

Marinate vegetables for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat barbecue on HIGH for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to MEDIUM and grill vegetables 6-7 minutes per side. Reserve marinade.  Leave peppers on barbecue for 5-8 more minutes until blackened.  Place peppers in a paper bag for 10 minutes to loosen skins - this will make peeling them easier. Peel the skins off of the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Dice all of the vegetables into 1/4 inch pieces and place in a large glass bowl. Combine with 1/3 cup of reserved marinade. Add more chopped fresh basil and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Crostini:

1 baguette
6 ounces goat cheese

 Slice baguette on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices. Take the remaining marinade, should be 1-2 tablespoons left and combine it with 1/2 cup of olive oil. Brush baguette lightly on both sides with this olive oil mixture and place on grids. Grill for 3 minutes per side. Remove from grills. At this point, you can set everything aside to assemble later, or assemble and eat them right away! Spread with goat cheese, top with 1 tablespoon of grilled vegetable tapenade and place back on barbecue for 5 minutes on MEDIUM.