Nicola uses whatever vegetables are ripe in her hill-top garden for soups, and with an abundance of over-sized courgettes and tomatoes on the day we visited, she whipped up this delicious soup in her incredibly compact kitchen with ease.

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow-skinned marrow or 6 courgettes
• about ½ cup olive oil
• 4-6 large juicy tomatoes
• 12 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
• 1-2 cups vegetable stock

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Trim the marrow or courgettes and cut into thick slices. Arrange in a large ovenproof dish or baking tray and douse liberally with olive oil. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place on a second tray with the garlic and cover generously with olive oil.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until tender and the edges of the vegetables are beginning to show a little brown colour.
4. Transfer cooked vegetables to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Pour carefully into a saucepan, reheat and add a little vegetable stock to thin the soup to your preferred consistency, if too thick. Season with salt and pepper and a dahs of verjuice, if wished. Serve garnished with seasonal herbs and dukka.