Ribboned Courgette Salad

You need to make this salad. It’s so simple and so good. It only takes a few minutes to put it together, just a few ingredients and no cooking required.

A note on ingredients

Courgettes - the star of the show here. Rarely served raw and more often served cooked in a variation of ways, this salad celebrates the courgette in its simplest form. When they are in season, they are fresh, delicately flavoured and beautiful vegetables that can make simple flavours sing.

Pecorino - a hard sheep's cheese from Italy. Salty, rich, almost a bit funky. It is reminiscent of parmesan but not quite the same as Pecorino is creamier, softer and a bit grassier. The creaminess works well with the courgette here.

Salt - don't scrimp on the salt here. The dish really needs salt to make it sing and it also helps to soften the courgette so that it isn't as thick and raw. It draws out some moisture which softens it in turn.

Lemon - brightness and acidity which we love around here! Again it works to break down the raw courgette slightly to soften it and it also works with the olive oil to create a slight dressing.

Mint or basil - herbs really carry the flavour of this dish since courgettes don't have strong flavours alone. Mixed with the creamy, salty pecorino and the lemon juice, basil is perfect here and would also tie it into any dish you may be serving with this salad such as a pasta dish.