Salad, zoodles or flowers in batter. What can courgettes do in the kitchen?

Meals based on fresh, seasonal and locally sourced vegetables are not only a healthier way of eating, but also a joyful way to establish a relationship with your farmer and break away from the industrial agricultural mass production that is bringing humanity closer to ecological collapse. (Watch the Netflix documentary Sustainablewhich articulates our colossal problem very clearly.)

It's also an opportunity to banish boredom from the kitchen: by being open to what the garden has to offer, you can venture out to new horizons culinarily. Full of fruits that we may be neglecting a little. Or don't know what to do with.

Smaller is better

Courgettes, aka Cucurbita pepo, have been in Czech gardens for a couple of decades. Like me, you may remember from your childhood in the 1990s all those specialised cookbooks trying to stuff zucchini into everything regardless of flavour or texture. Or Halina Pawlowska telling stories on TV about the impossibility of getting rid of them. (In Arizona they say that in August you can't afford to leave your car unlocked or risk someone putting a bag of zucchini in it.)

What most of us have left from that time are recipes for zucchini potato chips and buns, or the ability to slice zucchini into thicker rounds and grill them. Which is a tried-and-true but somewhat limited registry. And a great shame for this annual creeping vegetable (well, it is botanically a fruit), which is 90% water and 90% fibre, carotene, potassium and other nutrients. It's excellent for digestion, a healthy cardiovascular system and weight loss.

In addition, courgettes grow well and abundantly in our conditions, fruiting abundantly throughout the summer. Chef Martin Štangl at Eska works with courgettes from Stanislav Hecht's Sluneční farm from mid-May to the end of September; during the winter, he runs out of fermented stock, pickled in season in vinegar liqueur or lacto-fermented.

For variety, Martin takes both yellow and green fruits and keeps an eye on their size. "We mostly use mini or baby courgettes. We serve them as part of the evening menu, where their delicate flavour stands out. They can be used raw in salads or just lightly fried as a side dish, depending on the inspiration of the moment. The larger fruits are part of the grilled vegetables on our breakfast menu," says Martin.

Even with courgettes, it is true that size matters: although many of us also took away from the 1990s a strong belief that courgettes should be allowed to grow to the size of a few weeks old, this is not the case. The tastiest and most rewarding in the kitchen are the young, actually unripe fruit, harvested at around 15 to 20 centimetres in length and 2 to 4 centimetres in diameter. Unless you have ambitions to shine with your mastodon at the next annual horticultural exhibition of the ZO ČZS Holýšov, or to break the current record of 2.52 metres, which according to the Guinness Book of Records is held by one Giovanni Batista Scozzafava from Ontario, Canada, please pick and demand young courgettes.

Why? Their milder flavour, thin skin and minimal seeds make them great material for all sorts of kitchen adventures, including a whole new dimension to cheese.

The upward spiral

Thinly sliced zucchini can easily be added to salads, finger-sized sticks or cucumber with a blue cheese sauce. Mix the less pretty fruits with other ingredients to make pesto. Any follower of the raw food diet will also tell you that raw zucchini can be made into a pesto with a knife and patience - or rather a special tool charmingly called a spiraliser, for a lighter and naturally gluten-free version of pasta.

They are so popular in the USA that the beautiful portmanteau term has been coined for them "zoodles" (aka zucchini + noodles). The resulting long noodles can be left raw, tossed lightly in a pan with a little oil, blanched for a minute or heated in the microwave and then used in exactly the same way as classic pasta.

If you don't want to avoid pasta, I recommend abusing a few underage zucchini for this ultimate al fresco treat: grate them coarsely into a large bowl, add chopped chilli peppers, grated zest from an untreated lemon or lime and a handful of torn basil leaves. Stir, add the linguine cooked al dente (I strongly advocate using fresh pasta), mix and season with salt and a generous dose of olive oil. Done, you've just made one of the tastiest and quickest summer meals in the world.

It's time to reward yourself with some dangerously drinkable natural white wine, like Milan Nestarec's sparkling Danger 380V, Ota Ševčík's zesty riesling or Jakub Novák's elegant Sauvignon. And go and enjoy this fresh beauty on your plate and in your glass somewhere in the fresh air, receiving an ovation from enthusiastic consumers.

The sun on the plate

A largely neglected edible part of the courgette, which offers a lot of fun, is the large, bright yellow male flowers. Pick a few of these next time they bloom in your garden and tear them up just to brighten up your salad.

If you're not a subsistence farmer, ask the farmer you get your vegetables from about them, he'll probably be happy to arrange them for you. "I don't normally put them in boxes because people don't know them that well, but I have a customer who asked for them, so she's been eating them I always bring them to her in season," confirms farmer Jiří Antušek from Vysočina, who says that happiness is often only a question away.

Martin Štangl from Eska takes the flowers from Stanislav Hecht from Sluneční farm in Vykáně outside Prague and uses them stuffed as a light summer course - for example in a fresh combination with verbena and pickled lemon pesto, which you can also prepare thanks to the attached recipe.

A more traditional Italian version? Flowers fried in batter of flour, eggs and water or wine. For an extra flavour dimension and calories, it's worth filling the flowers before frying, perhaps with a mixture of cottage cheese and herbs or ricotta with anchovies. Take a few minutes googling, and you're sure to come across plenty of recipes, or just let your imagination run wild (just cut it short in the case of spices, too strong a filling would overpower the delicate flavour of the flower).

Stuffing flowers, by the way, is quite fun, which might even interest your little ones - It just requires a little care not to tear the flowers when handling.

This article was published in the summer issue of A* magazine, which is free to pick up in Ambiente restaurants.