A fantastic way to use that zucchini: Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts

A friend of mine once joked that August is the month when, if you leave your car door open while parked on the street, you’ll find a zucchini in it when you come back.
   Thus is the effort of those who grow the green-skinned vegetable to thrust it upon others if plentiful, and especially if the zucchini is monstrous.
   Luckily, I have a few great recipes that use zucchini tucked away to use during this season.
   On Tuesday night, I discovered my latest new favorite zucchini recipe when my husband and I made Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts from the August 2010 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.
   I really can’t express properly how terrific this salad was. It was absolutely delicious. It has officially become a new heavy-rotation summer salad recipe.
   Although the salad is easy to make and can quickly be put together on a weeknight, it is elegant enough to work at a sit-down summer dinner party. Served as a first course, it will impress.
   The secret ingredients, in my opinion, are the coarse kosher salt and crushed red pepper, which lends a pickle-like taste to the salad that’s very appealing.
   Two pounds of medium zucchini are trimmed and sliced with a vegetable peeler or V-slicer, and a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, coarse salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper is added. Chopped fresh basil and toasted pine nuts come next, and the salad is tossed.
   Strips of Parmesan cheese are shaved off a wedge with a vegetable peeler. Although the recipe says to put the strips on top of the salad, I placed them on individual servings.