The time of year has arrived when we have the welcome ‘problem’ of how to use all the courgettes. Our own plants are producing plenty and our wonderful hosts where we stayed while we were in the Minervois gave us several from their garden to bring home as well. I like them simply sliced and fried in olive oil, but sometimes it’s good to have a change and this simple dish of roasted courgettes with feta cheese and olives provided that.
I cut two medium-sized courgettes into chunks about 1 cm square and put them in a roasting tray with a couple of cloves of garlic, roughy chopped, some salt and some olive oil. After about 30 minutes in the oven at 200 C the pieces were beginning to brown and I added 100 grams of feta chopped into small pieces and some stoned green olives for the last 10 or 15 minutes of cooking. Meanwhile, Lo Jardinièr cooked some rice and made a delicious concentrated tomato and caper sauce to serve with them.
This made a very good supper, followed by some sliced windfall peaches given to us by friends in the village over which I’d poured some viognier white wine from the domaine des Pascales.
And the squid? Well, that was another meal – a real treat fror me when Lo Jardinièr makes this dish as it’s one of my favourites. A trip into Pézenas meant we had an opportunity to buy two nice squid from one of the excellent fishmongers in the centre of the town.
Lo Jardinièr cleaned, skinned and removed the insides from the squid. The fishmonger offered to do this for him so you may not have to do this. He then cut the two squid (which weighed about 500 grams together) into rings. He beat together 2 tablespoons of flour, a pinch of salt and a cup of water, beat an egg white until frothy but not stiff and then folded the batter into the egg white. He dipped the squid pieces into the batter and fried them in olive oil for no more than a couple of minutes. They’re best served very simply with wedges of lemon, a green salad and a glass of white or rosé wine.