James Whitaker
Pick Little And Often
Most courgette gluts are self-inflicted. Leave the patch for three days in July and you will come back to marrows the size of a toddler's forearm, with tough skins and fat, watery seeds. The trick is to walk the bed every morning with a knife and a basket, taking fruit at 10–15cm while the skin is still glossy enough to dent with a thumbnail. Those small ones are the finest eating you will get all year: sweet, firm, and happy to be sliced raw into a salad with lemon and good oil.
Anything that has slipped past that stage is still perfectly usable, but treat it differently. Halve it lengthways, scoop out the seed pulp with a spoon, and discard it. Peel the tougher skins if they resist a fingernail. What is left is mild, soft flesh that behaves beautifully in soup, chutney and cake — it simply needs a bit more help from herbs, acid and salt than a baby courgette does.
- Courgettes (10–15cm): griddle, roast, spiralise, eat raw.
- Large courgettes (20–25cm): fritters, bakes, ratatouille.
- Marrows (anything bigger): soup, chutney, frozen grated flesh.
Marrow Soup: The Simplest Way To Use A Whopper
A single 2kg marrow will make soup for six with very little effort. Peel, deseed and cube it, then soften a chopped onion in butter or oil in your largest pan. Add the marrow, one diced potato, a grated clove of garlic and about 800ml of light stock. Simmer gently for 20–25 minutes until everything collapses under a spoon, then blitz until silky. Finish with a grating of nutmeg, a squeeze of lemon and a swirl of cream or crème fraîche.
Two things lift marrow soup from worthy to genuinely good. First, salt it properly — the flesh is bland and needs it. Second, add a herb with backbone: dill, mint, or a spoonful of curry powder bloomed in the pan at the start. It freezes superbly in litre tubs, so make double and stack them in the freezer for January.
Courgette Fritters That Actually Hold Together
Soggy fritters are the usual complaint, and the cause is always water. Grate 500g of courgette coarsely, toss with a teaspoon of salt, and leave it in a colander for 20 minutes. Then wrap it in a clean tea towel and wring it out hard — you should be surprised by how much liquid comes out, often 150ml or more. That liquid is worth keeping for soup or stock.
Into the squeezed flesh, mix:
- 100g plain flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 60g crumbled feta or grated mature cheddar
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- A handful of chopped mint or dill
- Zest of half a lemon, salt and black pepper
Fry heaped tablespoons in a shallow layer of oil over a medium heat, flattening slightly, for 2–3 minutes each side until deep golden. Drain on kitchen paper and eat warm with a garlicky yoghurt. They reheat well in a low oven and are excellent cold in a lunchbox the next day.
Chutney For The Winter Shelf
This is where the real marrows go. A good courgette chutney is sharp, dark and slightly sticky, and it will sit happily in a cool cupboard for a year or more. For roughly six jars, combine 1.5kg of peeled, deseeded and diced marrow with 500g of chopped onions, 350g of demerara sugar, 500ml of malt vinegar, a tablespoon of mustard seeds, a teaspoon of ground ginger and a pinch of chilli flakes.
Bring it to a simmer, then cook uncovered for 1½–2 hours, stirring now and then to stop it catching. It is ready when a spoonful drawn across the pan leaves a clear trail that fills slowly. Pot into hot, sterilised jars, seal, and label. Leave it for at least a month before opening — the flavour needs that time to settle into something far better than the sum of its parts.
Freeze The Flesh, Grated And Measured
If you cannot face another pan, freeze instead. Grate marrow flesh, salt and drain it as for fritters, then squeeze it properly dry. Weigh it into 250g portions, bag them flat, and freeze. Flat bags stack like books and thaw in minutes. Use it within eight months.
Frozen grated courgette is best in cooking that expects moisture: chocolate courgette cake, savoury loaves, soups, pasta sauces, and the fritter mix above. It will not work in a stir-fry — the texture has gone — but as an ingredient that adds sweetness and keeps a bake damp, it is unbeatable.
Baking, Blitzing And Honest Uses
Courgette cake is the sleeper hit of the season. Use 200g of squeezed grated flesh to 250g self-raising flour, 200g caster sugar, 150ml of oil, two eggs, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Bake in a lined loaf tin at 180°C (160°C fan, gas mark 4) for about 50 minutes. It keeps for four days and improves on the second.
Beyond that, keep a few tricks in reserve. Blitz leftover cooked marrow into a purée and stir it into risotto at the end. Add diced courgette to a slow-cooked tomato sauce and let it melt into the background. Roast chunks with garlic and thyme until the edges caramelise, then fold through pasta with plenty of parmesan. And if all else fails, leave a box on a neighbour's doorstep — that is what a glut is really for.
