We like our summer squash in this house but patty pans and globe courgettes are my particular favourites. It was back in 2013 that I discovered these two culinary delights. The first was in the spring when Paul and I took a road trip to St Chinian in the south of France. We were staying in a small apartment, overlooking the small market square. Since the market was there it seemed rude not to go down and investigate. We were perusing all the local produce when we came upon a young chap with his paste table all set out with these strange, frilly, yellow vegetables. I was intrigued and tried in my best schoolgirl French to find out what they were and how to cook them. The young chap very patiently told us they were a type of courgette called patty pans and the best way to eat them was to dice them and gently sauté them in butter. Needless to say, we ended up with a bagful which we tried that evening with our meal. He was right, they were tasty and very moreish.
Then, in the summer of that year, my little sister and I went on our; now infamous; summer road trip to France. We were travelling in an MX5 sports car which was small, to say the least, so we didn’t have much space for fancy cooking gear amongst our essential camping kit and clothes. We had one stove, one pan, one frying pan and a kettle to provide for all our culinary needs so we had to keep it simple. It’s quite amazing what we came up with but by far the best were the stuffed courgettes. Not just ordinary courgettes but globe courgettes. We had previously eaten a delicious lunch of courgettes stuffed with sausage meat at a little roadside cafe nestling under the walls of a medieval chateau; served by a waiter with the most gorgeous bum ever; so when we espied them on a local market store we decided to give them a go. We stuffed our courgettes, along with a couple of beef tomatoes, with a rather nice sausage meat and pepper mixture; which we’d managed to find at the local village butchers; and steamed them in our pot. The resulting meal was delicious and, greedy pair that we were, we finished the lot, washed down with a bottle of local fizz we’d procured from a private vineyard.
Ever since then I have tried, mostly in vain for a good few years, to find them back home. All was not lost, however, since 2013 was also the year we got our allotment. Although over the years we have planted and harvested tons of courgettes; last year we had so many we couldn’t use them all and everyone’s freezers were full of courgette soup; we have never managed to plant any globe or patty pans. Until this year. Since we didn’t put quite so many plants in and it has been a strange year weather-wise; and everything else-wise as well; our harvest has been more manageable, providing us with enough patty pans and globe courgettes to keep me happy. So far we have had them sliced and sautéd to accompany pork chops or fish and, of course, we’ve had them stuffed.
My recipe for Couscous Stuffed Summer Squash can be found here