I first got the idea for this recipe from Salonika – A Family Cookbook, which I discovered among the usual treasure trove sent to me quarterly in the form of Slightly Foxed. The book is a collection of recipes from a Jewish family – part of an isolated community. This is a Saucy Dressings dead-simple version of kaygana – a sort of Turkish omelette cum no-pastry quiche which they’d picked up from the locals. The original version involves mashing the courgette to death and making a kind of pulp which needs quite a time in the oven.

This is a simpler, fresher, more interesting version.

What is a constant is the idea of pairing this with watermelon. Much to my surprise it goes brilliantly. You can either serve with slices, adorned with a bit more mint and some fruity olive oil (I love the intensely fruity one from Muraglia). Or it also goes very well with Hot Day Tomato and Watermelon Salad.

Recipe for Courgette Baked With Cheese

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 medium courgette (about 250g/9 oz)
• 200g/7 oz feta
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp flour
• smoked salt
• freshly ground pepper, or a pinch of Urfa pepper
• 4 tbsps/60 ml/¼ cup milk
• a few mint leaves

Method

1. Boil a kettle. Lay the courgette down in a small shallow dish, and cover with boiling water which you salt generously. Leave for a couple of minutes while you get on with the next steps.
2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium-sized mixing bowl beat the eggs, add the milk, stir in the flour and then crumble in the feta, Season. Snip in most of the mint leaves.
4. Oil a baking dish.
5. Thinly slice the courgette and cut those slices into half – into half moon shapes. Add to the egg mixture. Put the lot into the baking dish.
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve, garnished with the rest of the mint leaves.