Courgettes are hungry plants but easy to grow and versatile. Aside from ratatouille, they’re great raw and are easy to grate into salads with a bit of lemon and oil. Alternatively, they can be steamed, grilled or roasted and are fab spiralised for low carb spaghetti. If you have a glut why not try pickling them.
Courgette and Parsley Pickle:
Slice 6 courgettes and 1 onion as thinly as possible – potato peelers or mandolins give good results. Layer the courgette slices and thinly sliced onion in a bowl and sprinkle coarse sea salt in between each layer. Place a small plate on top of the courgette and onion slices and place a weight on top in order to sweat the water from the courgette. Leave overnight. Drain off excess moisture and wash off salt. Gently heat 1 pint of cider vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp mustard seeds until the sugar has dissolved. Add courgettes, onions, a few gloves of garlic and large handfuls of parsley and bring to the boil. Take off heat and bottle in sterilized jars, making sure courgettes are covered with liquid. Seal jars.
Try it with cold meat or poached salmon, burgers or in a chicken mayo sandwich. Delicious!