After years of world travel and dining out in everything from hole-in-the-wall joints in Laos to the finest finery of Paris's restaurants, the real food luxury for me when I travel now is to cook in, using the most simple ingredients, listening to local radio, and serving on the most grandmotherly plates.
Recently while on the road, I made a version of a salad that I love at the height of summer: shaved zucchini with Parmesan and olive oil. When it's too hot to cook and all you have is a vegetable and a hunk of cheese, this is your new go-to dish.
I've made this a dozen times at least, but for some reason have neglected to share it on the site until I realized last week in a tiny little shack by the sea that this is a great dish when you're limited in ingredients and tools. I didn't even have the basil I usually like on top, but it was still delicious because the quality of the cheese and zucchini was so high.
This time of year, it's still easy to find smaller, more tender, dense and juicy zucchini. You don't want to use the jumbo county fair prize-winning zucchini; they are too dry and spongy. Slice the zucchini with a mandoline if you have one, but a sharp vegetable peeler or even a regular knife will do. If you have a vegetable peeler, you're set because you can also use it to shred the parmesan into little curly chips, but again, a steady hand and a knife will do. You can still hit this one out of the park.
I know it doesn't look like much, but I promise it'll hit the spot.
Raw Zucchini Ribbons with Parmesan
Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer2-3 small whole zucchini
1 tablespoon sea salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
2 ounces shaved Parmesan
3-4 basil leaves, sliced chiffonade
Remove the stem end of the zucchini. Using a mandoline, vegetable peeler, or sharp knife, slice off a 1/8-inch strip lengthwise and dispose of it or snack on it. Using this long, white exposed shape as a guide, continue to slice very thin pieces off the zucchini and gently set aside in one layer on a platter. When you get to the end of each zucchini, again reserve the last green slice for another use.
Sprinkle 2 teaspoons salt evenly across the strips and set aside for about 10 minutes. The zucchini will tenderize. Blot with a kitchen towel. Arrange all but one of the strips on a serving plate in rows, in a woven formation, or twisted like rosebuds. Drizzle the olive oil across the zucchini. Top with pepper. Taste the remaining strip for saltiness. If they need more salt, sprinkle the remaining salt. Garnish with the thin strips of basil.
Related: Green-Skinned & Tender-Hearted: Zucchini
(Image: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan)
You might also like
-
Gnocchi with Sweet Corn, Cappuccino-Chip Shake, Stuffed Zucchini, Avocado BLT, Homemade Kombucha, & More
-
Green-Skinned & Tender-Hearted: Zucchini
-
Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles, Caramel Banana Cake, Southern Pickled Shrimp, Garlic Dill Pickles & Chickpea Salad
-
No-Cook Summer Recipe: Crostini with Zucchini Squash and Feta
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I made a version of something very close to this this past weekend. I alsoused a sprinkle of lemon juice and grated rind.... delicious!!!!!! Thank you.
Can't wait to try this.
I've used cukes before (no cheese tho, tsetsiki ingredients instead) but I always use a Scandinavian cheese slicer.
(It was called a Norwegian cheese slicer in our household, my parents were natives.)
My favorite way to add cukes to a sandwich, too.
It is so pretty! I want to like it.
The summer after I graduated from college I was so poor that I lived off what my roommate & I grew in our drought-stricken garden. We were out in the middle of nowhere with little access to groceries, farmstands, etc (in a national park). At one low point all we had was zucchini, zucchini, zucchini. We ate it every single day for about 3 weeks, pretty much on its own. I have never been able to face raw zucchini since then, although I do enjoy it cooked very much (the more cream, cheese, garlic, onions, tomatoes, etc etcc the better though, still).
@VESLABEACHGIRL - I have a Norwegian cheese slicer that my sister got my on a summer abroad in Norway. My family is half Norwegian and we grew up using one too.
I actually made a version of this a few weeks ago when i had a yen for pasta with pesto and parmesean, and didn't want to consume the carbs....so I made myself very wide zuke
pasta noodles" and very lightly steamed them for about 3 minutes...and tossed with parm and a bit of pesto. this is even less work! yum!
I make something similar, but use a mixture of lemon juice & olive oil & add some toasted pin nuts as well.
I'm trying to figure out how to eat this. Do you take a slice of zucchini and roll it up with Parmesan? Or?
@Travelingrae Fork and knife. Or just pinch with fingers.
My partner makes killer zuccihini "pasta" like this, but with a potato/vegetable peeler (smaller ribbons, the size of linguini). For a no-cook meal, toss with similar ingredients as above, or caprese ingredients, or white beans/olive oil/walnuts, etc. Really any traditional pasta treatment. Also great tossed with hot marinara or other pasta sauce--just barely softens the zuke. Crisp, fresh, wonderful! In the winter, we use frozen zuke from previous summer's garden in similar "pasta" casseroles or bakes.
And the parmesan goes on after the olive oil but before the seasoning... or... ?
This was really nice. I made it with freshly grated rather than shaved parmesan - I like it that way since each bite could have cheese on it. And I didn't bother with any fancy arrangements - just dumped it on the serving plate in a tangle. My only tip is to be careful with the saltiness. I used a much smaller amount of a fine sea salt and still found it a bit too salty.
I make a "quick pickle" salad like this - throw thin sliced zucchini (I make small rounds out of laziness and a bad old vegetable peeler that I avoid at all costs) in a shallow bowl of rice wine vinegar with salt and pepper just as long as it takes me to chop up some low salt roasted almonds, shave ribbons of parm or pecorino (with aforementioned evil veg peeler), and chiffonade a little basil from my back stoop. Just drain the zucchini and toss with all the fixings for a fresh no cook salad/antipasto.