Cooking with Pete and Barb: Steamed green beans and zucchini with goat cheese and roasted walnuts

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them, and cook up a feast.

"I love a cold bean salad in the summer, especially when it's really hot and the best you can do is boil some water," says Barb, who was poking around her oil and vinegar cupboard to make a vinaigrette to dress the salad, when she unearthed walnut oil, which has a wonderfully nutty flavor. "I was tired of the same old vinaigrette, and walnut oil just makes any salad rock, especially with goat cheese," says Barb, adding that "it's also a big improvement over oil and vinegar in a beet salad."

Steamed green beans and zucchini with goat cheese and roasted walnuts

Ingredients

½ pound green beans, rinsed and trimmed on both ends 1 cup walnut pieces 2 medium zucchinis, rinsed, peeled, cut ½ lengthwise, then cut into spears 1 log Haystack Mountain goat cheese, crumbled

For the dressing:

1 cup walnut oil ¼ cup high-quality red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1 garlic clove, peeled and left whole Salt and pepper to taste

Steaming Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Place the walnuts on a baking sheet, and roast them in the oven for 15 minutes. Let cool. 3. Bring a large pot to water to boiling and top with a steamer. Place the green beans and zucchini in the steamer and cover for about eight minutes, or just until the beans are bright green. 4. Submerge the vegetables in a pot of ice water to stop the cooking process. Leave them in the bath for five minutes, then drain.

Dressing Directions

1. Combine the oil, vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. 2. Place the garlic clove on the end of a fork, and mix the dressing with it. Leave the forked garlic in the dressing to infuse it.

Assembly

1. Arrange the cooled vegetables on a plate. Sprinkle with the walnuts and the crumbled goat cheese, drizzle the vegetables with dressing and garnish with fresh parsley and a grind of black pepper.