One of our favourite summer dishes, we love this with pasta or bread and a big bowl of salad. For the filling, use any soft cheese you prefer, mixed with fresh herbs or a big scoop of pesto. We usually use our homemade tofu ricotta (here’s the recipe) but a mix of cream cheese and feta is delicious too. Make your own tomato sauce or use a jar of ready made.
Liz x
Ingredients (serves 4-6)
- 1 courgette
- 1 batch of tomato sauce (from a jar or sauté a diced onion and 4 crushed garlic cloves in 3 tbsp olive oil until soft, add a tin of chopped tomatoes and half a tin of water, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes)
- 400g soft cheese (use any you prefer, a mix of feta and cream cheese or vegan versions, we like to use our homemade garlic and herb ricotta)
- a large handful of chopped herbs or a couple of tbsp of pesto
- olive oil, salt & pepper to taste
Method
- Make the tomato sauce and pour it into an oven proof dish. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
- Make a batch of garlic and herb tofu ricotta or mix any soft cheese you prefer with chopped herbs or pesto.
- Use a potato peeler or a cheese slicer to cut the courgette into long, thin strips.
- Place a heaped tsp of the herby cheese mixture on the end of a courgette slice. Then roll it up and place it, seam down, into the tomato sauce. Repeat until you have filled the dish or used up all the courgette slices.
- Drizzle the rolls with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven until bubbling and golden – around 15 to 20 minutes.
- Enjoy with bread or pasta and salads.
So versatile! I’ve used aubergines (sliced then lightly roasted) like this a lot but never thought to use courgettes . And they don’t need any pre-cooking. They will give a fresher taste. Your suggestion of herbs or pesto stretches the season. In fact if I lightly roast then freeze some courgette slices, as I do with aubergines, I could make this in winter. Thanks.