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By Root 2366 0

simply wash them and leave them unpeeled. If they are the larger, coarser variety, pare off the rough ridge parts of the skin, so that the courgettes present a striped appearance. It is a pity to peel them entirely, for there is flavour in the skins. Slice them across on the bias, about inch thick. Sprinkle with salt, put in a colander and leave for an hour or two until the excess moisture has drained out. Shake them in a cloth to dry them. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy frying-pan or sauté pan and put in the courgettes. Add a crushed clove of garlic. Let them cook, not too fast, until they have softened, turning them over with a palette knife and shaking the pan from time to time so that they do not stick. Now add the skinned and roughly chopped tomatoes and, when these have softened and turned almost to a sauce, season with a little freshly-milled pepper and turn on to a serving dish. Enough for two or three.

Nice as a separate vegetable, as an accompaniment to veal or lamb, or cold as an hors-d’œuvre.

COURGETTES À LA NIÇOISE

COURGETTES WITH TOMATOES AND BLACK OLIVES

Cook the courgettes exactly as in the above recipe, and when they are ready add about half a dozen stoned and halved black olives and a sprinkling of parsley.

GRATIN DE COURGETTES ET DE TOMATES

BAKED COURGETTES AND TOMATOES

For this recipe the courgettes are peeled and butter only is used in the dish, which is an unusually delicate one. Its disadvantages are the time it takes to prepare and the fact that, if it is served as a first course, two people can quite easily consume the whole lot. But it also makes a very good accompaniment to lamb, in which case it should be enough for four people.

3 oz. butter, 2 lb. courgettes, 1 lb. tomatoes, parsley, 1 small clove of garlic; salt and pepper. Breadcrumbs.

Pare the courgettes very thinly, leaving just a few strips of the green skin; slice them into even rounds about inch thick. This can be done on the mandoline or Universal Slicer. Put the courgettes in a colander, salt them lightly and leave them to drain. Skin the tomatoes; chop them roughly. Chop about 2 tablespoons of parsley with the garlic.

Shake the courgettes as dry as possible in a thick tea cloth. Heat 1 oz. of the butter in a frying-pan and put in half the courgettes (unless you have a very large frying-pan they won’t all go in at once). Do not let the butter burn or even turn brown. Let the courgettes cook gently until they are soft and transparent looking; transfer them to a gratin dish and cook the rest in the same way in another ounce of butter. Having transferred these also to the gratin dish, melt another half-ounce of butter in the pan and in this cook the tomatoes and the parsley and garlic mixture with a seasoning of salt and pepper until the tomatoes have lost the greater part, but not all, of their moisture; they should be in a thickish purée but not too dry. Amalgamate this mixture with the courgettes. It should completely fill the dish. Smooth down the top; strew with a light layer of pale golden breadcrumbs. Divide the remaining half-ounce of butter into little pieces and put them on the top. Put the dish on the top shelf of a hot oven, Gas No. 7, 425 deg. F., for 25 to 30 minutes, and serve sizzling hot when the top surface is deep golden and bubbling.

Simple though this dish appears it is not easy to get it quite right at the first attempt; it is mainly a question of getting the tomatoes to the right consistency so that the finished dish is neither too liquid nor too dry, and this provides a useful demonstration of the treatment of tomatoes to go into any gratin or other oven dish. If they are put in raw they will give out so much moisture in the cooking that the result will be a thin and watery dish with a sadly amateurish air about it, whereas the preliminary cooking gets rid of excess moisture and also concentrates the flavour.

LES ENDIVES BELGES

BELGIAN ENDIVES

Belgian endives, chicory or witloof make first-class winter vegetable dishes as well as salads. It is a mistake to wash them