Roasted fennel.

Roasted cauliflower, sliced thin and tossed with oregano and basil. Roast some carrots in the same pan with the cauliflower.

Roasted heads of garlic.

Roasted red onions, dressed with balsamic, herbs, olive oil.

Get some oil cured olives. Toss them in a hot pan with a touch of olive oil, throw in some sliced garlic, herbs (rosemary! thyme! oregano!), lemon and orange zest. Do this just before serving, serve warm.

Oh. And.

Tomatoes suck right now, but grape tomatoes are pretty decent. You can get a handful of 'em, toss them into a really hot pan (touch of olive oil), and swirl them around until they're blistered and just starting to pop open. Throw in some lemon zest or juice for zing.

Oh. And. Also.

If you take some nice bread, you can also do a few spreads. Olive tapenade, say. Muhammara. Blanched snap peas and mint and olive oil.

4. I know that they're not in season out there, because they're only now starting to do it here, but....

One thing that's awesome? Grilled fava beans. Get a couple pounds. Don't remove them from their pods. Toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper. Throw them on the grill. When the pods start to split open, they're ready. Eat them like edemame. Sooooo good.

...

Which also brings to mind roasted brussels sprouts (which probably ARE in season). But they're not very good cold, so not suitable for an antipasti platter.

But the other night, I made some really good roasted turnips, and they'd be fine at room temp. Cut baby turnips into quarters. Toss with olive oil, a teaspoon of caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 20-25 minutes, until they're brown and tender. Add 1-2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of butter to the the pan, toss them, leave them in for a minute or two. Let cool. Really good.

Pretty sure I'm out of ideas now.

Eggplant. Roasted. If you're going to do it yourself, then you're looking at a long prep time, from what I remember doing kitchen work ages ago. (Peeling > slicing > roasting > layering in pan and covering with olive oil > pressing them until they're done. done = thin and yummay.) Better to buy it pre-done from an Italian foods store.
Would braised fennel work? Hmm. Maybe not. You could try it in a test batch to see, and if not you could chuck it in a salad.
You could roast a head of garlic in the oven with olive oil too, until it gets sweet and turns to a garlic mush.

Golden beets, cooked until tender, cut into quarter-inch thick slices and allowed to cool in the fridge for at least an hour. Golden beets have a flavor that's both richer and more subtle than red beets, and they don't discolor the food next to them.

(Buy them with the greens on steam the greens separately and eat them yourself, hot, sprinkled with your favorite vinegar.)

Oh, I asked the right people. Lovely suggestions - thank you SO much. I look forward to veggie shopping.

Artichokes. I can't believe no one else said that.

Oh yeah. Um, duh.

(Really good boiled in cajun seasoning.)

(Don't do artichokes if your friends are likely to have good wine, though.)

I once did a Provencal-themed Easter dinner. Lots of fennel. I am now craving roasted fennel. Damn you all!

*shakes fist

Forgot one thing on why you don't want to do killer eggplant on such short notice: Ideally, you'd want to peel and slice the eggplant, and then salt them heavily. In the restaurant, we'd take tablecloths (due to the volume we were doing) and lay out the slices (cut at about 1/4" ea.) on them, side-by-side. Salting dries them out, and causes them to absorb the oil that they'll be soaked in. A day later, we'd take them out and roast them (over the gas jets on the stove, as it's fast and effective). Then they get put in a deep dish/container (like a lasagna dish... that deep), layer by layer. On each layer pour (some, not heaps of) olive oil on them, filling said container to about 3/4 full of eggplanty love. Take another, identical pan and place it in the full one, and fill it with water (for weight, to press them). Put in the fridge for a day to a day-and-a-half and you've got roasted, thin eggplant that have absorbed the olive oil. From that end product you can make a nice terrine or do whatever you want.

Oh, do I love a nice terrine. Since I've gone this far...

The top layer of the terrine should be roasted red peppers, so that's what gets placed on the bottom of the pan. It's done backwards, as you're going to turn the whole thing upside-down when it's ready to get it all out of the dish. Then take the most excellent eggplant that you now have and place it in another deep dish, layer by layer on top of the peppers. 1/2 way through layering the eggplant in the dish, make a layer of goat's cheese (you want a soft, sort of cream cheese one to be able to spread properly), then continue with the eggplant until you get to the top layer - once again, about 1/4 of the way to the top. Place an identical dish on top of the terrine (exactly as was done pressing the roasted eggplant). Fill with water to compress the whole thing. Huck it in the fridge again for a day or so.
Turn the dish upside-down, and out comes the terrine.
Serve with a really nice mustard (holy cow, the Germans really know how to do mustard. one of those.) or an equally-as-nice mayonnaise (NOT a store-bought one. Wrong flavour and texture.)
Spices? Really, I can't remember any spices being put in the terrine, not even extra salt or pepper. Spices could get to be really iffy, and the four flavours (eggplant, goat's cheese, red peppers and olive oil) stand on their own magnificently.

oh jeez, i'm so hungry now and i don't know if this all makes sense. you should email me if you want details.

Oh, forgot - also serve with a French bread sliced and toasted, and capers (and a tiny bit of smoked salmon, if you wanted). People would come from all over just to have that terrine. Truth!

um. sorry for the derail, miko, antipasto sounds lovely. i'll just have some of that. me so hungreeee.

Do you have a griddle? You know, the things with ridges. I love to do courgettes on mine. Oh, okay then, zucchini. A 6" zucchini should be cut in half, the ends removed, then sliced thinly lengthways (about a quarter inch thick) and then cooked on the griddle pan so the slices get lovely ridges on them. The courgette will become soft and sweet. Delicious hot or cold.

I also 'roast' sliced peppers on my griddle, but avoid eggplant because of the oil it absorbs.

If it were me I'd do several different colours of peppers and a few zucchini, then when cold, mix them with a little olive oil, Greek olives (the big fat black ones) crushed garlic, lemon zest and a tiny squirt of lemon juice, chopped basil and the tiniest hint of rosemary (maybe just two or three 'needles', chopped really finely).

Get a whole pile of button mushrooms, drizzle them with olive oil and pan-fry gently with garlic and parsley. Serve hot or cold.

Button mushrooms are also really good mixed with a jar of hot pickled eggplant (the kind I'd get was heavy on the olive oil) and marinated for a couple of days. Mmmmm.

Oh my GOD I can't stand this.

I'm going to do a bunch of these suggestions - definitely the fennel, asparagus, the peppers, the olives and mushrooms, and maybe golden beets. I might try to find baby zucchini and do the grilling.

Unfortunately, none of this is in season here, but hey, it's Easter. There are imports. Food miles be damned!

Miko, you don't need baby zucchini - the regular ones are best to grill, in long slices to get the full flavour.

I like the way the baby guys look on the platter, so I was hoping for them. I didn't find them,though, so they'll be grilled and then rolled pretty-like.

Know what else is a cool thing to do with zuch and yellow squash? Use a veggie peeler to slice them lengthwise in really thin slivers and toss with pasta, rosemary, garlic, and oil with some parmesan shaved on top. Looks really cool.