Friday, July 30, 2010

Garden Variety






Last weekend my boyfriend Wendel and I attended an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night that was produced by a theatre company that tours around the South Bay every year called, "Shakespeare by the Sea."  It was a great way to spend a Saturday evening.  In my opinion, an outdoor performance like this isn't complete without a tasty dinner.  I always wanted to have a picnic under the stars but wanted to make something relatively easy and transportable.  For an appetizer, I chose a homemade edamame pea spread with toasted pita wedges (recipe will follow on the next post).  Our main dish was homemade steak sandwiches on sourdough bread with roasted tomatoes, arugula, muenster cheese and dijon mustard.  I picked a light side dish that I found while perusing through the August issue of Bon Appetit magazine.  Check out the recipe below.  Super easy to make and super delish!  It's even better with home-grown tomatoes.

Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 t. coarse kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t. dried crushed red pepper
2 pounds medium zucchini, trimmed
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
Small wedge of Parmesan cheese

Kitchen Notes:  *I added a handful of cherry tomatoes for extra flavor and used a different peeler than the recipe recommended b/c I don't like the large ribbons.

Whisk oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, 1/2/ teaspoon black pepper and crushed red pepper in small bowl to blend.  Set dressing aside.  Using vegetable peeler or V-slicer and working from top to bottom of each zucchini, slice zucchini into ribbons (about 1/16 inch thick).  Place ribbons in large bowl.  Add basil and nuts, then dressing; toss to coat.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Using vegetable peeler, shave strips from Parmeson wedge over salad.


2 comments:

R Fursa said...

Which peeler did you use?

miss mara said...

Hi there! I actually used a julienne cutter because I liked the thinner strips of zucchini. Here's a link to one you can buy on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RAD9NI/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B003YIX4LW&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=09HAZ647RQQ58M84XQ9M