A surfeit of marrows

When holiday time is upon us, the gardens are full of marrows; i.e. enormous courgettes that didn’t get picked in time. Mary brought one home from the farm shop, only 50p and big enough to kill a man with. I peeled it, sliced it and put it in the pressure cooker with a couple of cut-up onions, a pint of water and a stock cube. After fifteen minutes cooking I put it through the blender, checked it for seasoning and let it cool.

When it was cold from the fridge I ladled out a bowlful, mixed in a dollop of smetana and some fresh marjoram leaves from the garden, tasted it and added a squirt of lemon juice. So simple, so cheap, so cooling, so noncalorific, and so delicious! It must already exist in a recipe book somewhere. It invites further modification into:

Cold Ratatouille soup

In addition to the above, minus the smatana, make your own favourite selection of ratatouille vegetables, chop them medium-coarse and roast them on a pan with olive oil until they are as crisp or as limp as you would like them to be. Allow them to cool, then stir them into the cold soup. Splash your face with cold water, sit in front of a fan, and ingest.

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