Garden snacks

If you didn’t manage to secure yourself an outdoors booking at your fave Italian restaurant, don’t worry – you can knock up this easy snack in minutes for your garden visitors. The Italian Deli Cookbook (Quadrille, £26) will take you right to the streets of Italy without having to leave your home. Bellissimo!

Courgette, olive and ricotta salata bruschette

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

● 4 tbsp olive oil ● 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced, plus 1 clove, halved, for rubbing the toast ● 4 courgettes (zucchini), halved lengthways, then cut into 1cm half-moons ● 6 basil leaves ● 4 large slices of pagnotta semolina bread or good sourdough, toasted ● 100g (3½oz) Taggiasca olives, pitted and finely chopped juice of ½ unwaxed lemon ● 30g (1oz) wild rocket (arugula), mixed with 1 tsp good olive oil ● 50g (1¾oz) ricotta salata ● sea salt and freshly ground ● black pepper

Method:

Heat half the olive oil in a saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid over a medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and courgettes and ½ tsp of salt. Stir, increase the heat to full and leave for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Place the lid on the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for ten minutes, until the courgettes are caramelised and a bit mushy. Remove the lid and cook for a further five minutes. Tear half the basil leaves into rough pieces and stir them into the courgettes. Check the seasoning, adding black pepper as needed. Set aside.

Take the four slices of toast and rub with the halved garlic clove. Place the toast on a serving plate. Place the chopped olives in a bowl. Finely chop the remaining basil leaves and stir them through the olives with the lemon juice and remaining olive oil to form a paste. Spread the paste equally over the slices of toast and divide the cooked courgettes on top. Scatter over the dressed rocket leaves and finish with shavings of ricotta.