Vegetarian Dinner Party: Goat Cheese, Apricots, Galettes, Macaroons, and More!

My brother just got his first apartment and wanted to have us over to see it. In my family, this means food (and lots of it).  Naturally, I offered to do the cooking. But,  I’m a vegetarian and Marty is very much a steak and potatoes kind of guy, so I met him halfway. To start, I served mozzarella cheese tarts made with the leftover galette pastry dough and a grilled apricot, lettuce (from my garden), and goat cheese salad.  It was AWESOME.

Here’s the recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-apricot-arugula-and-goat-cheese-salad

We grilled the apricots in a George Foreman grill for indoors; I had my doubts, but this worked perfectly and the apricots smelled wonderful when grilling. After my parents and brother finished the antipasti (and an episode of trueblood), we sat down to dinner.  The main dish was a zucchini & ricotta galette.

The zucchini is sliced so thin in this recipe that even a non-zucchini lover like me enjoyed this recipe.

I used a pizza pan to cut the dough into a perfect 12″ circle, used lots of flour when rolling, and constantly threw the dough back into the freezer to keep it cold, so it came out looking pretty good.  It had enough bread and cheese that my brother enjoyed it, (though still pulling off the zucchini).  The vegetarians loved it too.  :)

Here’s the recipe: http://alwayswithbutter.blogspot.com/2011/03/zucchini-ricotta-galette.html

With it, I served my mom’s artisan bread (which my brother loves), styled as a wreath and summer corn soup which, at first, I assumed would be a disaster.  It tasted bland the first time I made it, but with a little pepper and a second heating, it tasted sweet and thick (just like a corn soup should).

Here’s the recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Summer-Corn-Soup-242979

Finally, for dessert I served macaroons, which are essentially meringues (another favorite of my brother’s) made with almond powder.  In the middle, I used a homemade chocolate ganache and homemade pistachio paste.  You can find the respective recipes here:http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/10/french-chocolat/  &   http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?Display=85

These didn’t come out quite as I had hoped, but they were so tasty, I’ll definitely try again!

All in all, the dinner was a success and I can’t wait to do it again!  So long, and yum!