Having failed to grow our own courgettes so far this year we have been supplied by our friends Aura & Martin. This regular supply has encouraged us to work our way through our own short list of recipes that contain courgettes and borrow further recipes to give the veg a continued appeal. Although I think T.W.O may have had enough already. He has been heard to mention, ‘oh courgettes. What a surprise!’ more than once. They can also be added to quiches and tonight I am going to try using them instead of pasta in a savoury mince dish – but as a vegetable dish here are my 3 favourites.

Courgettes roasted

 Aura has been cooking this for weeks so here’s my version

Oven to 180 degrees C or gas mark 4 Slice up a courgette or two depending on Size and how many you need to feed. We use one enormous courgette for the 2 of us.

Slice up an onion

Crush and chop a couple of cloves of garlic

 Slice up a sweet red, green or orange pepper into thin strips

Place these in a roasting dish and pour over a few table spoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix it about to distribute the oil and then cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Keep an eye on it though as you want the courgettes softened but not charred.

Courgettes griddled

Aura served this cold to us but you can have it warm. Take a few courgettes and slice longwise so you have thin but long slices. Either grill these for a few minutes, use a griddle pan on the cooker top or put them on a BBQ. They 5 to minutes, turning once to get some nice charred lines down them. When they are just softening take them off and drizzle in olive oil.

Courgettes and tomatoes

Slice up 1 big or a few small courgettes thinly Slice one onion Crush and chop a couple of garlic cloves Tin of chopped tomatoes A sweet pepper (green or red) Small tin of tomato puree Dried Oregano seasoning

Using a large frying pan gently fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Then gradually add pieces of the courgette allowing them to sit on the base of the pan for a few minutes before moving them to the side of the pan to allow more pieces of courgette to be cooked. Once all the courgette has been cooked put the pepper in and give all a good mix up letting the pepper cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the can of chopped tomatoes puree tomatoes, a good teaspoon of the oregano, a good pinch of salt and pepper. Allow to bubble gently for at least half an hour stirring every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t stick. Serve with any meat, fish or veg dish.