Last year we made the mistake of planting 5 courgette (zucchini) plants. For a family of 3.5 this was totally excessive. We - and our friends and families - were eating the bally things in all their shapes and sizes for months. Anyway, it did mean I became a dab hand at transforming them into other food stuffs, and these are some of the top recipes I used:

Make a cake. I mean, why would you not? The courgette keeps the cake deliciously moist. This chocolate courgette cake recipe from Good Food is a classic, basic - though our family favourite is the carrot, courgette and orange cake. It makes two 8” cakes, which you can either sandwich together, or eat-one freeze-one. They freeze brilliantly.

Stuff them. The trouble with courgettes is that one day they look about the size of a pencil and the next time you have a poke around they’ve transformed into marrows. If you’ve got any on the larger size, then don’t fear - this recipe from Angela Hartnett will turn them into tasty, filling supper dishes - particularly delicious with the added chorizo.

Blend them. This was the one recipe I found that worked well with frozen sliced courgettes, which otherwise defrosted into a watery mush. Its courgette, potato and cheddar soup and was absolutely gorgeous. The courgettes made it super creamy. Delicious. And freezable.

Despite the fact that we have reduced our plants from 5 to 3 this year, I’m anticipating that we’ll still be doing lots of courgette cooking - so these are some of the other recipes I’ve put aside to try out: courgette gratin; crunchy courgette pickle; stuffed courgette flowers; courgette potato & cheddar bread; and basically anything by Yotam Ottolenghi.

Enjoy!