Most gardeners are familiar with that moment when courgettes don’t just flourish, but begin taking over the entire vegetable patch. If ignored, even for a couple of days at the height of summer, these prolific little vegetables develop overnight into giant, fibrous marrows. Harvest them on a daily basis, however, picking them when they are but a few inches long, and you can use them to rustle up all manner of delicious dishes, including courgette bread and desserts. Australians and Americans will know them as zucchinis, a name taken from the Italian zucca, which is a form of pumpkin, while we have taken their name straight from the French courge, which is a type of marrow.

Prospect Books, who specialise in publishing books on food, cookery, food history and ingredients have republished Marie Fourgère’s Cooking with Courgettes (£9.99) which was first published in France 1991. Her recipes, which show that courgettes can enhance almost any dish you wish to make, were seen to be so creative and inventive that, given the glut of courgettes that plague us during the summer, Tom Jaine decided the book was a fine candidate for translation.

Marie Fougère is an artist, teacher and writer who compiles cookery books for Utovie, a small French publishing house in the Pyrenees.

The courgette is a summer squash which belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. It comes in deep yellow or orange colours, and also dark or light green. Like all members of the squash family, its ancestry is linked with America’s, though Marie Fougère places its origins in India. She say the ancients believed the seeds had aphrodisiac qualities and that the plant must have travelled the world as it was in Cuba during 1820 that a doctor discovered the effectiveness of the seed in treating roundworm and tapeworm by crushing the seeds in honey. Apparently, if cooked in milk it can help aid sleep.

The delicate courgette flowers are particularly fascinating. They can be stuffed and then dipped into a tempura batter and fried until crisp for a really delicious starter. The filling you use is up to you, but I find the easiest is soft cream cheese (goats’ is great), mixed with fresh peas cooked in mint and then mashed and gently eased into the flower. A stuffing created with Middle Eastern herbs and spices, such as cinnamon, cardamom, mint and yoghurt, works particularly well too, so do pine nuts and saffron-flavoured rice.

Because the flowers are so delicate they are seldom seen on supermarket shelves, but you will certainly find them in pick-your-owns and farmers’ markets. They wilt rapidly, so are best used the same day as picking.

An attractive salad created from courgettes is the classic courgette and lemon salad which calls for the courgettes to be cut very thinly lengthwise with a potato peeler, and smothered in grated lemon and lime zest then a dressing of olive oil, lime and lemon juice, a little runny honey and seasoning. By adding tarragon leaves and gently tossing the whole lot together, you will create a splendid little salad which goes particularly well with barbecued meats and fish.

Courgettes are best eaten freshly picked, and should not be kept for more than three days. While they may still look fine, you will notice that their skin has begun to lose its attractive shine and when cooked takes on a slightly bitter flavour, which spoils the dish.

One important tip I gleaned from Oxfordshire’s celebrity cook Sophie Grigson is that because courgettes are full of water that oozes out damply as soon as you begin to cut them, they will brown more slowly than other vegetables in the pan. Sophie insists that any overcrowding in the pan will produce a veritable lake of liquid such that the courgettes cook in their own juices. For crunchy brown courgette slices you must allow plenty of space in the pan and plenty of time for them to cook. Throwing them on the barbecue griddle is a great way of etching attractive brown streaks on both sides. The health benefits derived from courgettes are similar to those from cucumbers. Their main vitamins are found in the skin. They have a low calorie content, but are particularly rich in minerals, especially potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and calcium. They are also high in roughage.

Faced with a basket full of freshly-harvested courgettes the cook must be creative, if necessary by turning them into chutneys and pickles.