As anyone who grows their own vegetables will know, it's now that the garden starts to produce large quantities of fruit and vegetables – often more than can be consumed, leaving families rushing to make big batches of ratatouille to freeze, or dusting off those recipes for chutney, jam, ketchup and relish. Amid this super-abundance, don't overlook the sheer joy of really ripe produce.

Here are two dishes for immediate consumption that allow those without their own garden or allotment to share the best of the summer. Panzanella is the sort of Italian dish rarely seen in standard Italian restaurants which in England far too often display no real seasonality on menus. The use of bread in the recipe is critical. It allows all the excess juice of the tomatoes and the dressing to be absorbed.

The second recipe is a simple twist on a Greek Salad. Both dishes make good starters – or can be extended to become a supper dish or part of a larger spread. Unfortunately, neither the panzanella or the fritters keep well; they need to be consumed shortly after they are made.

Neither benefits from being served too cold, just make them and eat them, or if you are ahead of yourself, allow time for them to warm up rather than serving them straight from the fridge. Feta, usually ewe's milk cheese, can also be made with sheep and goats' milk. As a little tip, if you buy some ewe's milk cheese that you want to keep past the standard "use before date" or make a little more punchy, try soaking it in some light brine – perhaps 100 grams of salt per litre of water. The cheese will start to take on a rather more Feta-like salty tang.

Judy Bell's Shepherds Purse produces a "Kettle cheese" very like Feta, and smaller producers include Stonegate Dairy at Whixley who produce some fresh soft cheese.

Courgette and Mint Fritters and Greek salad

4 courgettes, coarsely grated

2 tsp dried mint

salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 egg

Juice of 1 lemon

50g self-raising flour

vegetable oil for deep-frying

Grate the courgette and season lightly with salt, then leave for an hour.

Squeeze out excess moisture.

Combine with lemon, egg, flour, mint and pepper. Be generous with mint and lemon; there must be enough. Form the mixture into disks and fry.

For the salad

6 tomatoes

¼ onion

½ cucumber

250g Feta

Extra virgin olive oil

lemon juice

marjoram


Chop tomatoes (don't skin or de-seed), cucumber, onion and feta. Mix together into a bowl. For the dressing, mix together a little olive oil, lemon juice and marjoram. Dribble liberally over the salad and toss gently to coat the salad. Cut three slim slices of the Feta and place on top of the salad.

To serve: Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar on the plate. Put a generous helping of the salad on a plate and sit the fritter(s) on the top. Dribble a little more dressing around the edge of the plate.

Melton's Panzanella

3 stale ciabatta loaves

100g salted capers

4 cloves of garlic

1kg plum tomatoes

100g salted anchovies

2 fresh chillies (optional)

3 red peppers

100g black olives (stoned)

salt and pepper

3 yellow peppers

4 tbl sp red wine vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch basil (large)


Cut bread into thick slices, place in a bowl and put to one side. Skin the tomatoes by cutting a shallow cross into the bottom of each, then plunge them into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Carefully transfer the tomatoes into a bowl of very cold or iced water. The skins should then peel off easily. Cut each tomato into quarters, scoop or squeeze out the seeds and drain through a sieve over a bowl. Press the seeds and pulp through the sieve to release the juice into a bowl. Add the garlic (crushed), some freshly-ground black pepper and sea salt to the tomato juice. Keep the tomato quarters in a separate bowl. Add 250ml of extra virgin olive oil and half the red wine vinegar to the juice from the tomatoes. Soak the bread in this liquid. (Depending on how dry the bread is, you may need extra olive oil to make sure all the bread is coated thoroughly). Get your hands in, if necessary, to make sure all the bread is covered. Grill the red and yellow peppers, whole, on all sides, until blackened all over. Then, take their skins off, seed them and cut them into 1/8ths lengthways. If using the chillies, grill and skin them in the same way and then cut really finely.

Rinse the capers thoroughly to get rid
of the salt and put them in the remaining half of the red wine vinegar. Separate the anchovies into fillets. Wash and chop the basil roughly. Rinse the olives. Don't bother cooking and peeling the chillies – just seed them and use raw.

Put a layer of the soaked bread into a clean large bowl. Layer in some peppers, capers, anchovies, olives and basil. Leave for about an hour at room temperature before serving with a little more extra virgin olive oil.

Michael Hjort, owner of Melton's and Melton's Too in York, is the director of the York Food and Drink Festival which is hosting the Yorkshire Post Taste Yorkshire Food Awards. Join us in helping to celebrate the winners at the awards dinner to be held in York Guildhall on September 25. The menu comprises a special pork dinner sourced from Ginger Pig of North Yorkshire prepared by Michael Hjort and his team, with wines selected by Christine Austin, wine critic of the Yorkshire Post. Tickets £40. Booking line 01904 466687.