Summer is here in earnest. The Greek Meteorology Office has just issued an extreme whether warning. The latest forecast is to expect a 43° C heatwave in the next few days.
Extreme heat is something I’m fearing a bit, to be honest. Being a northern European (that’s what Duncan calls me), I struggle when the temperatures soar over 30° C, I get grumpy and my motivation to do anything is at an all time low. Like my cat, all I wanna do is lie on a cold marble floor with an occasional dip in the sea (actually, that’s not something Tina is so fond of 😉 ) . She does suffer in heat too, poor thing. Sometimes I wonder why clever Mother Nature hasn’t provided furry animals with a zip so that they can ditch their furry coat for summer. So, as I’m in a bit of a lazy summer mode these days, this dish isn’t terribly involved. It came about as a solution to an abundance of zucchinis that I bought under the spur of a moment, so if you too are drowning in zucchinis, I’m coming to your rescue. Admittedly, zucchini is quite a bland vegetable, which is what the haters hold against it 😉 . To my mind, its blandness can be as much a fault as it can be a virtue though. It makes it a perfect candidate for tossing in a herbaceous basil and mint pesto and hey, presto, lunch is ready. I jazzed up mine with oven-roasted cherry tomatoes and fennel as they don’t require much work and some ready-roasted crushed hazelnuts for a nice crunch.
¼ cup ready roasted hazelnuts 30 g / 1 oz basil leaves 30 g / 1 oz mint leaves (or double the basil) 1-2 garlic cloves, pressed about 120 – 180 ml / ½-¾ cup extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional) a few pinches of salt, adjust to taste pepper, adjust to taste
