Courgettes with Hazelnuts and Pistou

Name: Courgettes with Hazelnuts and Pistou
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 3 medium courgettes; juice of ² lemon; 1 tangy apple such as Granny Smith or Cox’s Orange Pippin; 30 ml extra virgin olive oil; 50 g hazelnuts; 100 g good-quality Caerphilly, Wensleydale or Bonnet cheese; ¼ tsp sea salt; 60 ml extra virgin olive oil; 50 g basil leaves and stalks (a handful of leaves reserved and chopped to garnish); 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Seasonal Salads

By Fi Buchanan

Published 2023

About

How do you make this salad amazing? Caerphilly! This light, crumbly cheese works perfectly with the courgettes. Blanching the basil for the pistou seems like an extra layer of effort but it’s worth it because it fixes the chlorophyl in the tender leaves and stops the pistou from becoming too dark.

Ingredients

3 medium courgettes
1 tangy apple such as Granny Smith or Cox’s Orange Pippin
juice of ²

Vegetarian
Summer
June
Gluten-free

Method

Using a vegetable peeler, slice the courgettes into pappardelle-style strips. Peel and cut the apple into equally thin pieces.

In a large serving bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and oil, and toss the courgette and apple in it.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan for 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant. Transfer them to a board, roughly chop them and sprinkle lightly with sal