Last night we found ourselves with a fridge full of courgettes and not much else, so we tried this recipe by Nigel Slater which has been on our ‘must cook this sometime’ pile. I wish we hadn’t left it so long. It is a light, tangy supper dish, quite forgiving in terms of quantities and what you throw into it. He calls it ‘Courgettes with goat’s cheese and toast’.

Two large courgettes each was sufficient for us, we added more basil and more lemon zest than his recipe states and would have added more goat’s cheese if we’d had it. The drier crumbly sort of goat’s cheese works better than the creamy sort. I’m sure other strong flavoured cheese – manchego, cheddar – would be good too if that’s all you have. Serves 2
Zest and juice of one lemon
Large handful of fresh basil leaves
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large courgettes
1 crumbly goat’s cheese
Sea salt
4 thick slices of good bread, Spanish pan de pueblo, or sourdough Make the dressing [above] first. Grate the lemon zest with a fine grater, add to a bowl with the lemon juice. Tear the basil leaves and drop them into the juice and swish around a bit so they don’t go brown at the edges. Add the olive oil. Add a little sea salt, then crumble in the goat’s cheese in small pieces. Stir very gently. Rinse the courgettes and dry. Using a vegetable peeler, slice them very thinly all the way down from one end to the other so you have courgette ribbons. Warm a little oil in a frying pan and let the courgettes cook until golden [above]. Drop into the bowl with the dressing, toss gently.

Make the toast, if you prefer you can drizzle a little olive oil over your toast before piling on the courgettes in their lemony dressing. 5 to remember
indulgente – forgiving
el aliño – salad dressing
que se desmigaja – crumbly
el pelapapas – vegetable/potato peeler
con cuidado/a – gently