Silky whole roasted courgettes with bean and pea puree, walnut gremolata and salty cheese

A scrumpotious summer side or main, plus lots of variations on whole roasted courgettes.

Let’s be honest, courgettes taste of virtually nothing. But these weighty and abundant summer squash are excellent vehicles for flavour; they just need ‘souping-up’ a bit to coax out their deliciouness. Accessorised with bold flavours and cooked in ways that enhance their virtues - charred over fire, fried in lots of good olive oil or roasted - courgettes can be stars of the summer table.

I don’t remember ever eating them as a kid in Australia, even though the climate is courgette (zucchini) nirvana. Perhaps they were available but my folks had no idea what to do with them and innately new better than to chuck them in boiling water like they did the rest of the vegetable kingdom. As a result, I didn’t meet my first courgette until I travelled to Italy, where I scoffed them as antipasti: thinly sliced, butter soft, zebra-striped from the griddle and swimming in extra virgin olive oil. What had I been doing with my life?

Stanley Tucci had a courgette epiphany, too, when eating his way through Italy for his hit CNN series “Searching for Itay”; his was in the form of spaghetti alla Nerano at a restaurant on the Amalf Coast. Actually, he’d been there several years prior to the filming, fallen in love with the dish and tried to recreate it at home, and failed. So, he returned with a film crew in tow and persuaded the chef to share his secret with the world (spoiler: zucchini rounds are deep fried, rested overnight in the fridge before being assembled with the hot pasta, basil and cheese).

I’ve never bothered to try this technique because my go-to courgette pasta dish is infinitely simpler: Rachel Roddy’s Linguini with courgettes, egg and Parmesan - in crude terms a carbonara-style dish using courgettes and no guincale. Roddy shaves the courgettes into fine strips, along with some onion, but I skip the onion and grate the courgette. It’s rich, creamy and redolent of the courgette but not overly so (which means kids who turn their noses up at them don’t realise they’re eating it).

I’ve also taken to subbing aubergines with courgettes in Melanzane alla Parmigiana, for example. Like Claudia Roden, I don’t fry the thinly sliced courgettes - it’s just too time and oil-consuming. I prefer to brush them with oil, whack them under a grill and go about my life instead of standing over a frying pan forever. It works beautifully. And because the swap works well, I’ve played around with other ways of subbing one for the other, including roasting them whole.

For my latest book, Second Helpings, I planned to include a recipe for a babaganoush-style dip made with the tender flesh of whole roasted courgettes. The premise was that courgettes growers generally have a glut and need ideas for using them up. In the end, the dip didn’t make the final recipe list, but the idea was solid. Roasting courgettes not only yields flesh that’s silky and creamy, with a lovely concentrated flavour; opening the vegetable down the middle like a zipper to reveal its butter-yellow centre and oozing juices is strangely satisfying.

Today’s recipe takes the idea of roasting the vegetable whole a step further, and was inspired by a dish I enjoyed at Updown Farmhouse a few weeks ago. My version is a doddle to cook and I’ve included a slew of flavours that park very happily on the same plate as courgettes: mint, chillli, lemon and salty cheese. It’s flexible, of course, because the best recipe are: swap out the mint and and parsley for whatever you have or love (parsley, chives, coriander) and choose your favourite nuts, they don’t have to be walnuts. I’ve used goat’s cheese in the recipe, but ricotta salata works will if you can find it (as does feta). For the purée, use chickpeas or fava beans (widely available in tins) instead of white beans if you fancy, and sub edamame beans for peas (it’s not only delicious but also ups the protein).

I’ve devoured this as a main, or it works beautifully as a shared starter with barbecued meat or fish. Just let everyone serve themselves a scoop - the courgettes should cut easily with the side of a spoon. I’d also suggest some good bread on the side to scarpetta all the delectable courgettes juices.

I mostly roast these in the oven (rather than the barbecue) and to make sure I’m using energy wisely, I cook lots of courgettes at one time and store what I don’t need straightaway in the fridge for future meals and snacks. Scrape out the flesh and use it just as you would aubergine in a babaganoush-style dip. Or slather smooshed courgette flesh on good toast, sprinkle with pumpkin seeds, drizzle extra virgin olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. I’ve even stirred the flesh through spaghetti along with very ripe chopped tomato and abundant herbs like basil and mint. It’s a super fresh and simple pasta supper and anything not bland.