Grilled Vegetable Stacks

Last weekend our friend Marco hosted a fabulous garden party. He's got a beautiful garden full of homegrown vegetables and fruit (Marco, where are my figs?!). Along with delicious Italian sausages, cold cuts and cheeses, his mom made some very tasty fried zucchini. And his neighbour, Cathy, a professional chef, brought some gorgeous vegetable stacks.

My visit to the East Van Farmers' Market today has inspired me to write about these veggie stacks. The Market is full of beautiful summer squashes, tomatoes and herbs right now...all the ingredients you need for the stacks.

To make these impressive stacks, cut eggplant, zucchini or yellow summer squash crosswise into 1 cm slices. Rub with a bit of olive oil and grill over medium heat until they are barely tender. Grill red peppers until they are charred and remove the papery skin, cut into pieces the same size as the other veggies. Sprinkle the slices with a light dressing (you can use the dressing from my grilled vegetable salad recipe), stack slices and spear with an olive garnished pick. You can also add grilled portobello mushrooms, slices of red onion and whole basil leaves.

Enjoy!