Zucchini chimichurri salad

I've been making chimichurri a lot lately, when I'm too lazy to drive all the way to Barstow Street to buy some basil to make pesto. What, pray tell, is chimichurri, you ask?

It's a traditional Argentinian sauce used in salads, for dipping bread and meat, and even marinating. I had it for the first time in Costa Rica, and it was noteworthy. This is the recipe I use which results in a basically thick sauce suitable for dipping crackers, adding to salads or marinating meats in.

The zucchini chimi salad I made last week was very fresh-tasting and attractive. It was a great accompaniment to our steak dinner.

Chimichurri
I start by adding washed parsley (with the bigger thick stems removed) to my mini food processor. While the blender is running, I pour in about 1/4 cup of olive oil and a tablespoon or so of vinegar (your choice, I like rice vinegar or red wine vinegar), and add a few shakes of crushed red peppers or a couple whole red peppers, or if you have neither of those on hand, about 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper. Since I really love garlic, I add 4 or 5 big, whole cloves of it. I finish it up with about 1/2 tsp of salt. If it's pretty thick, and I haven't even added all the parsley yet, I dump in move olive oil, maybe another 1/4 cup. When it's all blended, I do a taste test and see if it's right. Add more of anything you think it needs.

When my garden gets going, I'm going to try adding some oregano or thyme to the chimi...

For the zucchini chimichurri salad, I add 1 diced red pepper, 1/2 jar of diced marinated artichokes (roughly chopped) and 2 green or yellow zucchinis, cut into thin pieces. I prefer not to peel them, but you can if you like. I then add several heaping tablespoons of the chimichurri.

As a sidenote, I tried adding some green onion to the chimichurri sauce before making the zucchini chimi salad I brought to Alitia and Tom's house on Saturday, and didn't try the salad before serving it. I have to say, I wasn't really a fan of the addition of the green onions, even though some traditional chimichurri recipes call for it.