Grilled Vegetables

Appetiser 

grilled eggplant with balsamic vinegar 

Got the grill on! lets get it to work, the most popular dish in the summer in Italy is a great platter or grilled vegetables almost a must !! or great even indoors with a stove top grill for panini in the colder weather.

We love them even on toasted bruschetta sour dough, Italian, really any type of bread or large cracker cutting up the eggplant smaller or zucchini. You can cut them vertically or horizontally about 1/4 inch or so. 

As per the title you can use any vegetable we tend to use purple eggplant, variegated purple, purple, white,Chinese long and the ball shaped of the eggplants usually light purple below see picture.

The best for these dishes are the first 3 listed , the round one tends to have allot of seeds and pockets witch make them harder to grill.
Zucchini all types light to darker one. 

Onions white or red I happened to pick these up in Tropea this summer great for panini or just a side to chicken or meats grilled.

These need no oil on the Indore grill! 
No Oil brushed on them because I find that it becomes a cooked vegetable with grill marks instead of grilled vegetables. If you need you can spray a little olive oil on the grill but for stove top grills no need to.

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Recipe
Simple, follow this :

Depending on your eggplant and if you want to make enough for two or a batch for the freezer, if you yours about 1 medium purple eggplant the size of a hand cutting them up in strips or circles are enough for two, or just a small platter for an antipasto or a great grilled vegetable sandwich , I keep them on hand and use them on our burger meat or chicken or turkey, also great veggie-burgers with grilled portobello and then layer them with roasted pepper and eggplant a little asiago or melting cheese and voula' love it!! they be in my recipes on panini in the fall.
Zucchini you will need one for an antipasto dish or two if you are going to use them for a side.
I tend to make them for the week, again for dishes i listed above or freeze them for another time.
Onions again 1 medium for two people is enough and these are great alone or as i mentioned above.

Here's what you will need

1 purple egg plant (for two people)or vegetable of your choice
A container with a top
Tongs to turn
olive oil as needed ( 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar 
garlic optional
1/2 tsp. pepper flakes
1 Tsp. dried Oregano
1 Tsp. Salt
1/2 cup of Fresh parsley 
for serving Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

Heat your Grill, or Stove top when its nice and hot by testing it drizzle a little cold water if it beads up its ready, with your grill usually you can place a hand over and it feels really hot its ready!

Cut your eggplant about 1/4 inch for a more meatier you can go 1/2 inch but i recommend the 1/4 inch. ahead of time, this makes it go faster and they will cook almost at the same time.

For your zucchini and onions the same.
Place the vegetable on your grill or pan grill and as the edges turn a little brown give a peek to see if the burn marks are on them turn them so you get another grill mark then proceed to turn then the opposite way to get them to have that criss-cross look.
Now remember this is just cooking them half way the second part of the cooking is remove them as they are grilled mark into a container with a top and leave them out or place in fridge for an hour or so, the humidity of the water in the vegetable will finish cooking them.( see pictures below)
Yes you can use them right after if you want but they will be a bit chewy, if you are using them for a barbecue on hamburger meat or meats, they will be ok. 

When your hour or when you are ready to use them, usually a great looking platter or dish place your vegetable you grill in a one layer and add your olive oil and vinegar that you have mixed with a fork to get the two to combine, remember eggplants absorb oil, turn them once add a little more eggplant, in a bowl or you can place the next items right over the eggplant, cut up your fresh parsley, your oregano, a few and I mean a few pieces of garlic ( optional ) salt, turn again so all the eggplants get a little of this, I love to add a little spice so i add pepper flakes if there are adults.  Top will a little Balsamic Vinegar Glaze.
The reason I said a few pieces of garlic seams like the eggplant picks it up and they are to garlic tasting, not everyone likes that . 
Same for the zucchini and other veggies .
At this point you can serve immediately or place covered in fridge till need.

zucchini

red onion

eggplant

The other thing which we do with our larger batches would be to use the ones we need, and the rest we make layers of this in a small container that we add all the above and make sure that you add extra olive oil so that they are covered about 1/4 inch or so, these will  be ready in the fridge as need, or i freeze them out before i need them .
Enjoy !