Shaved Zucchini with Ricotta and Hazelnuts

Happy freshman move-in day, William & Mary! It's almost impossible to believe that 8 years ago, we were moving into our freshman dorms and wouldn't even meet each other for months to come. I remember it as an exhaustingly hot, 10000% humid day of annoyance and lots of groaning, as my parents, uncle and I hauled all my new college stuff up to my 3rd-floor dorm room (no elevator or AC). Despite the friendly faces passing out lemonade and free things, it was a super stressful experience and my family's tempers flared, as the separation anxiety kicked in. We also lacked a decent fan, so there was an emergency trip to Target that my parents had to make with all the other freshman parents in town. Oops!




I believe Will's was a little more peaceful of an experience, as he had air conditioning, a slightly easier-access dorm, and about 70% less crap than I did. To compare: I brought two cars worth of stuff from two and a half hours away....he brought one mostly-full Toyota Matrix from 13 hours away. We still have the Matrix and my thing-loving brain cannot fathom moving into my freshman dorm (or anywhere, for that matter) with just the trunk and part of the backseat of that car. But alas, we both made it to William & Mary, into our respective freshman dorms, and were immediately thrown into the high-speed life of freshman orientation, mixers to meet other halls, and convocation. Suddenly classes and activities were upon us and our college lives took off. Every year I like to sit and reflect on freshman move-in day because it truly marks the beginning of one of the biggest (and hopefully best) experiences of a students life. But ohmigod we're getting old because ours was EIGHT years ago. Ahhhhh how did that happen and how do we make it stop?!?!


In honor of freshman move-in, I thought I would post a recipe with a little bit of our traditional green and gold mixed in....in vegetable form, that is. This dish was a light summer concoction, making the perfect light dinner or a great side dish for a dinner party or picnic. It's also a creative way to use your summer squash and zucchini, as we all know we can get inundated with it in the summertime! We thought this might be an "okay" dinner, but we were delightfully surprised with how much we like it. So if you've got some squash and zucchini and are tired of pastas. and zucchini brownies and the like, give this variation a try!

Cooking Notes: The original recipe called for walnuts as the nuts, but we had hazelnuts on hand and absolutely loved the flavor. We also chose to combine zucchini and yellow summer squash, because we knew it'd be pretty.

Shaved Zucchini with Ricotta and Hazelnuts (adapted from The Newlywed Cookbook; serves 2)
2 medium-small zucchini
2 medium-small yellow summer squash
3 tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed preferred)
3 tbsp EV olive oil
1/4 cup ricotta
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, lightly chopped
Fresh ground S&P

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the zucchini and squash lengthwise into long, thin strips. Begin to toast your hazelnuts in a small cast-iron skillet, until brown and fragrant. Combine EV olive oil and lemon juice in a medium bowl, stirring well. Toss the zucchini and squash with the lemon juice/olive oil, then season with S&P.

Transfer to a serving bowl and thwamp the dollop of ricotta cheese on top. Sprinkle with chopped/crushed toast hazelnuts. Finish with a little drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of S&P. Enjoy!