Recipe: summer squash salad with basil and pine nuts

A simple dish with endless variants

This is another recipe from Gina, of Ask Gina fame, who will solve any of your cooking riddles. Go on. Ask her.

You can run in a lot of different directions with this sort of raw vegetable salad: zucchini ribons, fennel, celery, shaved asparagus, what have you. Basically, thinly sliced veggies + olive oil + lemon + parm = yum.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs summer squash (such as yellow squash or zucchini), julienned
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 2 lemons
• 4 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
• 3 tablespoons pinenuts
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 20-30 fresh basil leaves, julienned
• salt to taste

Directions

Combine all ingredients and serve.

Tips

• Here’s a how-to on julienned vegetables (not much to it really)
• And here’s a how-to on julienned basil, which is actually chiffonaded basil, which does involve a little trick
• If you prefer your garlic mild, keep in mind that you can smash a clove, toss it whole with the salad, and then remove it

Image by Gina Faiola.