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turmeric
    1 litre chicken stock
    100g basmati rice
    Maldon salt and pepper
    Cut the courgettes – wash them by all means if you want, but don’t bother to peel them – into 5mm rings, and then finely dice them. Put them into a pan with the lemon zest and oil, stir to coat, then cook on a gentle heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they’ve slightly softened.
    Stir in the turmeric and pour in the stock and lemon juice and then drop in the rice. And for the stock here, as usual I make up some bouillon concentrate with water; you could use vegetable stock if you prefer, but I love the mellow goldenness you get from chicken. Cook, uncovered, for 10–20 minutes, or just until the courgettes and rice are tender. Taste for seasoning. Leave to cool slightly before serving so that you eat the soup warm rather than hot.
    Serves 4–6.
    And I sometimes exploit all this marvellous yellowness by making, if this doesn’t sound too poncey, a carpaccio of zucchini gialli, yellow courgettes. Just use a vegetable peeler to shave off thin curling strips. You will probably have to lose the central seedy core, so I’d reckon on using about one courgette per person. Just lay the strips of courgette (and see them thus adorning quail ) on a plate, spritz with lemon and a tiny drizzle of oil, a sprinkle of Maldon salt and feather, if you wish, with a few frondy straggles of fresh dill.





PAPPARDELLE WITH COURGETTES, SULTANAS AND PINE NUTS
    If there seems to be a rather small amount of pasta specified for four people here, it’s not because I’m exercising portion control, but because egg pappardelle swell voluptuously when cooked and a modest tangle of these dried yellow, wide-cut ribbons will plump up to take, appetite-satisfyingly, the whole panful of slow-cooked, sweet and mushy courgette sauce.
    Please don’t hesitate about the addition of sultanas: this Moorish touch – the sauce emanates, in essence if not exactly, from Sicily and more generally from the Italian south – is not a fanciful one.
    I can’t claim that this is a beautiful-looking sauce – the khaki tinge of the slow-cooked courgettes doesn’t speak of sprightly summer freshness – but its musky, herbal depth is fabulous enough. Eat on balmy evenings outside, with a bottle of resiny yellow wine, or to give the feeling of the same during a long, cold brutal northern winter. This is comfort food, southern-style.
    15g butter
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    750g (4 medium) courgettes
    1 clove garlic, minced
    salt and pepper
    2–3 tablespoons Marsala
    50g sultanas
    25g pine nuts
    250g egg pappardelle
    3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
    small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
    Heat the butter and oil in a heavy-based saucepan, and cut the courgettes into very fine rounds before adding them to the pan. Mince in the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook over a low to medium heat for about 45 minutes, stirring every now and again. When they are ready the courgettes will have sweated down – if you’ll forgive the expression – but still retain some colour and shape. In other words, you’re looking for a certain mushiness without going so far as out-and-out pulp. Not that it matters: if you forget these are on the stove and let them cook until they reach the state of pure, undifferentiated sauce, you will still have something pretty heavenly on your hands. Besides, in Sicily, you will find that different cooks have different preferences: as ever, there is no one way to cook the same thing.
    While all this is going on, warm the Marsala, pour it over the sultanas and leave them to plump up for about 15 minutes, or longer if you want. Once the courgettes are cooked, stir the sultanas and their amber juices into them. Taste for seasoning. Toast the pine nuts by cooking them in a dry frying pan until they turn a golden brown, and remove to a cold plate.
    Cook the pasta according to packet instructions, then drain and tip into a warmed bowl. Add the courgette