I've been thinking about courgettes since I woke up this morning. That's my weird little brain (TM JM) for you...
I think you've talked fritters already but they are one of my favourite ways with courgettes as they are, well, yum, and they practically make their own dinner, especially with a fried egg on top and any leftover tomato pasta sauce you might have hanging around
I know the word fritter conjures up a complex world of deep-frying and dense-eating, but these are light, simple babies — just grated courgettes, mixed with feta, herbs and spring onions, stirred up with flour and eggs and dolloped into a frying pan to make little vegetable pancakes which...
www.nigella.com
This is my ur-recipe. I make them like this often, but also leave out the mint and up the parsley content. Often add a chopped red chilli because everything is better with heat in my book. Or leave out the mint and the feta and add a shed-load of parmesan to make a thinner, crisper, saltier, more Italianate version, and I spritz those with lemon juice. If I have time/energy, I don't just dry the courgette slivers, I add salt and leave them for a while, it drags out even more liquid and infuses the courgette with magical salty goodness that makes the finished product even better.
Ok, courgette fritti, it's not revolutionary and this is deep frying and faffing about with batter, but it is entirely worth it. Do not skip salting the courgette, it's essential and makes it magical. I have these either with garlic mayo or chilli mayo or both. They are my favourite treat, my mum used to make them occasionally when I was a kid, and I'd rather have them than chips.
I first met Rose Gray 13 years ago, when she and Ruth Rogers were celebrating 10 years of the River Café's existence. Rose was lean-faced and wore rimless glasses like a Nazi camp commandant, but her conversation was warm and her eyes sparkled. Alternately friendly and firm, she reminded me of a...
www.independent.co.uk
I made a courgette salad yesterday. Griddled the courgette (and set my partner's smoke alarm off), then dressed in good olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper and a lot of parsley (almost enough to make it an ingredient in its own right rather than a flavouring). A bit of minced garlic is also good, but reduces the lightness a bit. I dress the courgette a bit beforehand to let it steep, then add parsley at the end.
It's old school cooking, but I like bigger ones stuffed. Sausage meat is easy and my favourite. I tend to make a stuffing out of whatever I have lurking about, but this is a similar sort of recipe to what I tend to come up with.
Have a few extra-large zucchinis? Stuff them with Italian sausage, onions, garlic, tomato, and fresh breadcrumbs, and bake. (Swap in medium-sized zucchinis, too!)
www.simplyrecipes.com
Discovered this recipe for parmesan baked courgettes recently and it's really good. Has a feel of fritti without all the deep frying malarky and everything is better with parmesan.
Baked Parmesan Zucchini Recipe - Crisp, tender zucchini sticks oven-roasted to perfection. It's healthy, nutritious and completely addictive!
damndelicious.net
One of my favourite Chinese side dishes is nicked from Fuchsia Dunlop. Matchstick sliced courgette, again salted and left for a bit, squeeze out excess water, then stir fry with thin, thin, slices of garlic. So much more than the sum of its parts. I would happily eat this all the time.
Alternatively, salt the courgettes in thicker batons, then dredge with seasoned flour (salt and pepper, but paprika is nice too) and stir fry for another easy side.
Courgettes are a key part of my favourite minestrone recipe. It's Nigella's from How to Eat and it's so much nicer than any of those ones with a tomato base. Courgettes add depth and silkiness to it in a way that I don't have the proper words for. This is such a good soup.
We were lucky enough to have Anu, Joan and their baby daughter, Niah over for lunch, as well as Ginny and Matt. Tara had decided to go sho...
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I've made this Ottolenghi pasta once and it's lovely, but there are other lovely sounding courgette recipes here too.
It’s time we gave courgettes the praise they deserve
www.theguardian.com
Oh, one more pasta... I really like this pasta from Nigella. Bit different with the sultanas and pine nuts, they are what lift it up a bit. I assume from the sultanas it's vaguely Venetian. Whatever the origin, if you like a weird bit of sweetness in your savoury dish then this is wonderful. I have made it with pappardelle and that does make it more luxurious, but have substituted other pasta quite happily too.
Forever summer, 279pp. by Nigella Lawson Chatto and Windus, London, 2002 Cooking on page 32 Summer is officially over in Australia—every year the country moves to autumn on 1 March. But I love summ…
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