Award-winning chef and food writer Meera Sodha has unveiled a new recipe for fried courgette, black bean, and goat's cheese tacos, describing it as her current favourite use for the summer vegetable. The inspiration for the dish stemmed from a culinary revelation while watching actor Stanley Tucci's popular food travelogue, 'Searching for Italy'.
Sodha recounted how observing Tucci enjoy spaghetti alla Nerano, a dish famously featuring fried courgettes, ignited her interest. This fascination led her to attempt to recreate the experience during a trip to Italy, though a car breakdown thwarted her plans to visit the renowned Lo Scoglio da Tommaso restaurant in Nerano. Undeterred, her husband successfully prepared the pasta dish at home, impressing Sodha with the depth of flavour achieved by simply frying courgettes until they were golden-brown.
Since that discovery, Sodha has been experimenting with fried courgettes in various dishes, culminating in her new taco recipe. The process involves thinly slicing 800g of courgettes into 5mm coins and frying them in rapeseed oil until they are golden brown all over. This step, which takes approximately 7-8 minutes per batch, is highlighted as requiring close attention.
The fried courgettes are then combined with a flavourful mix of minced garlic, a 400g tin of drained and rinsed black beans, chipotle paste, and sea salt. Fresh lime juice and chopped coriander are folded in, along with 80g of mild hard goat's cheese, cut into thin shards. The filling is served warm in small corn tortillas, which can be substituted with small wheat tortillas if corn ones are unavailable.
The recipe is designed for ease of preparation, with a 10-minute prep time and a 40-minute cooking time, serving two to three people. Sodha suggests putting on a good album or podcast to accompany the frying process, emphasising the need for continuous monitoring of the courgettes.