Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Fresh corn and zucchini salad alla Al Forno

A few weeks ago, my parents were darling enough to take me out to dinner with them at Al Forno, one of the truly finest restaurants in Providence. One of the dishes I enjoyed there was a salad made from fresh, local corn and zucchini. Having come home from the farmers' market this week with the same two vegetables, I decided to try my hand at duplicating it:



To make this salad:
1. The secret to the pretty curls of zucchini? A vegetable peeler. I started with a smallish zucchini, maybe 8" or 10" long, and used the peeler to skin off the very outside and one more layer, going over the same "stripe" of the zucchini. I discarded those first two passes, then kept going, making more and more pieces. I had about enough by the time I hit the seeds. Then I curled and arranged the slices of zucchini in my salad bowl.
2. Shuck 1/2 cob of fresh corn (I pulled the leaves down only halfway, and broke the cob in half with my hands, then wrapped the remaining part back up). Using a sharp knife, slice the kernels off, then sprinkle them over the zucchini curls. I ended up pulling a few of the zucchini pieces back up so they showed through the corn, for a more balanced appearance.
3. Drizzle with good olive oil.
4. Using that vegetable peeler again, make curls of parmesan or pecorino cheese (anything sufficiently hard and salty will do). I barely had any left, so I didn't get as pretty, big shavings as the original had had.

Done! Yum!

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