'Striato d'Napoli' the first courgette of the season

'Striato d'Napoli' Courgette from the real seed company

A good early courgette from Italy. Big bushy plants giving lots of long, pretty fruit with alternating light and dark green stripes. Perfectly smooth and round in cross-section, and the flesh doesn't go as 'soft' when cooked as other courgettes do.

Thanks to the real seed company for this years excellent range of heritage hierloom seeds.

The first courgette of the season wont be turned into soup, but with many more to follow a freezer full of soup seems like a good idea.

Courgette Soup Serves 4 or fill the freezer.

Ingredients
* 1 kg courgettes - any size and colour
* 250g potatoes (suitable for mashing), peeled or scrubbed
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
* 1 medium onion, peeled & chopped
* 30ml olive oil
* 150g soft cheese (see note below for alternatives
* Handful fresh chives, chopped
* Handful fresh summer herbs of your choice, chopped
* 1 ½ pints water (or mild-flavoured stock

The method
1. Wash the courgettes and chop them into chunks. Cut the potatoes into cubes (smaller than 1 inch).
2. Heat the oil gently in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic.
3. Gently cook for about 5 minutes, to soften.
4. Add the potatoes. Stirr. Cook gently, covered, for about 15 minutes, until about half-cooked.
5. Add the courgettes and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally.
6. Add 1 1/2 pints of water - just enough to cover the contents of the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.
7. Remove from the heat and liquidise the soup.
8. Add the Cheese & herbs.
9. Season to taste with salt & pepper.


Cupboard-To-Table
About 40 minutes. (Most of this is waiting, so actual preparation time is about 15 minutes

Thanks to veg Box recipes