courgette, parmesan and parma ham salad

my first courgette has been eaten! i’ve read lots of things about home-grown vegetables tasting so much nicer than bought ones and it was wonderful to be able to put this theory to the test at last.

i decided to take inspiration from a skye gyngell recipe and tossed courgette ribbons and parmesan shavings with some lemon juice and olive oil. i then layered the mixture with some parma ham (courgette, ham, courgette, ham) and topped it off with some mustard leaves which i also grew.

it tasted amazingly good – the courgette itself had a more distinct and “greener” flavour than shop-bought courgettes. this might be due to it being just-picked, slightly smaller than the ones you buy and, obviously, because of the tlc david and i have been giving to our garden as we try and grow some vegetables! the recipe also helped – one courgette made two ample starters and the flavours worked brilliantly together. skye suggests adding crème fraiche as well.

i have a second courgette on its way and can’t wait to try something else with that!

update: i used this same recipe for the second courgette, but added slices of avocado in the middle. much more filling but a good alternative.