As the oil warms, add the spring onions and leave to cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Pour 3 tbsp of the oil into a large, shallow pan – I use a 28cm frying pan – and place over a low to moderate heat. Trim the spring onions, discarding the roots and the tough, dark green tip of the shoots and roughly chop them. Once they are edging towards tenderness, turn the heat up a notch for that last few minutes to get them to a light, golden brown. If they have seeds inside, slice them in half lengthways and scoop out the woolly core with a teaspoon before slicing. Even the largest courgettes are good cooked over a moderate heat with olive oil and garlic. The small, green-freckled and lightly ridged courgettes I prefer can be elusive. Courgettes and mushrooms with green olives and basil As I bring lunch to the garden table, a butterfly comes, too. It tastes like lemon syllabub, only lighter and more refreshing. Most of the melon in this house is eaten with burrata or chalky white feta, but today it accompanies homemade ice-cream, a simple, hand-stirred recipe, and scented with pale sherry and citrus zest. The melon’s green skin is heavily ridged with a rough spider-web of netting – a sign it is ready to cut – and has been chilling overnight in the fridge. The chives have flowers like tiny white stars – irresistible – and I add them, too. I have squeezed lemons and picked basil from a pot on the window ledge for a dressing for the courgettes, and tossed them with chopped salty green olives and a thin bunch of garlic chives. The mushrooms are the common brown chestnut variety. The garlic is plump and sweet, its skin pale pink. I turn them with a palette knife as they start to colour, just catching them before they fall apart. Those courgettes are cooked over a moderate heat, so they become fully translucent, their cut sides lightly golden. Care has been taken to choose the smallest courgettes, the ripest melon.
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