Italian Salsa

Recently, I was thrilled to be asked by Jovan's Pure Nutrition, a local craker company, to come up with some recipes for one of their summer letters!  They are a newer company that promotes healthy eating through their products and are working to stay gluten free and vegan friendly.  Their crackers are made solely from dehydrated vegetables, herbs/spices and seeds.  I would definitely recommend them if you are GF as they are some of the better GF crakers I have tried (my favorite flavors are the Spicy El Paso and Zesty Tomato, but all are great).

I was asked to make both a recipe to pair with their crackers as well as a dessert (both GF and vegan).  After being stumped with creativity for a few days, came up with the idea to create an Italian-style summer salsa.  I loved it and have made it again since!  It was nice and light with just a perfect amount of flavor that didn't overpower what the crackers already had to offer.  It would go just as fantastic with crostini (or almost anything else) and would be a fast, easy and fun appetizer to serve at any gathering.  Trust me and try it out!  You'll see I took pictures of it with Jovan crackers, which I also recommend as I said above.

Italian Salsa
makes about 2 cups
2 beefsteak tomatoes, seeds/juice removed and diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 large shallot, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tbs packed fresh basil, chopped

In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, zucchini, shallot and garlic.  Stir in lemon juice and olive oil.  Add salt, red pepper and basil, stirring again until just combined.  Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve!