Courgettes/zucchini recipes ideas for summer

I just come back from a delicious holidays home,... nothing better than the family and friends to fill up the batteries and enjoy the tasteful garden!

This is the perfect time when the garden starts to give these fruits! This year, is particularly great and early as spring was pretty hot!

So, we already have a lot of courgettes or zucchini ready to be eaten! I thought about a couple of easy recipes for summer, fresh, quick and great to go with a barbecue for example!

For the basis, you just need courgettes/ zucchini and 1 tbs. of olive oil. Wash properly the courgettes and slice them in cubes. In a sauce pan, put the olive oil, and cook the courgettes, covered at medium heat for 10 min. After 10 min, take off the cover and let it cook 5 more minutes till it gets smooth and the water of the veggies steamed. Add salt and pepper.

With this base, my first proposal is oriental and I add to the courgettes black olives, cumin seeds and 2 slices of pickles lemons sliced in very tiny pieces. Serve it cold or warm. It will go nicely with merguez, barbecue or roast chicken.

The Italian proposal will mix the courgettes with a pesto. For the pesto, I crush 1 garlic clove, 2 tbs. of olive oil, and a handful of basil leaves. In a oven dish, spread with a little bit of olive oil, I put a 1 cm thick layer of almond powder, then the courgettes and the pesto. I repeat the different layer till the end. On the top, I put again some almond powder mixed with parmiggiano reggiano. 15 min in the oven on the grill, and it will be ready for the dinner!

The cold soup proposal is perfect for the hot summer! In this case, keep the juice of the courgettes, add some broth or water and mix all together in a blender with 10 leaves of fresh mint! Very nice and refreshing!

Perhaps you do have more ideas to easily and quickly cook the courgettes for this summer! How do you prepare it?