Zucchini-and-Fennel Salad With Pecorino and Mint

In 2007, if you were looking for a sign of the culinary times, you could do no better than the one prominently displayed in San Francisco, in my local Übermarket for the conscientious shopper: “Organic Summer Squash, $3.99 a pound.” Our growing food fetishization created a new produce category: luxury squash. I was disturbed but also intrigued: perhaps familiarity had blinded me to squash’s delicate charms — at these prices it clearly deserved more than a typically bland sauté or a quick turn on the grill. Given its etymology (the word “squash” comes from a Native American word meaning “eaten raw”), maybe it shouldn’t be cooked at all. So I swallowed hard, bought some zucchini and shaved them into a salad with fennel, mint and pecorino, which made a delicious and interesting starter.