Courgette, Tomato & Feta Bake

Ingredients

• 200 g feta, crumbled
• 2 x 400g tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• fresh basil and crusty bread, to serve
• 4 courgettes, sliced into 1cm rounds
• 500 g cherry tomatoes
• salt and black pepper
• Dressed rocket salad with shaved parmesan, to serve
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced

Method

1. Heat the oven to 210°C fan. Spread the courgette rounds across a large baking tray in a single layer — crowd them and they'll steam grey instead of catching gold. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Roast for 15 minutes, until the edges are turning golden and the flesh has started to give.
2. Pull the tray out and scatter over the cherry tomatoes, drained cannellini beans and sliced garlic. Tip on the oregano and chilli flakes, drizzle with another 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and toss gently so everything glosses up. The hot oil hitting the dried oregano and chilli is your bloom moment — those flakes go from dusty to fragrant in the heat of the tray.
3. Back into the oven for 20 minutes, until the tomatoes have split and pooled their juices, the beans have crisped at the edges, and the garlic is pale gold and mellow. Watch the garlic on the second half of the roast — sliced thin and exposed, it can tip from sweet to bitter quickly, so if any pieces are darkening too fast, nudge them under a tomato.
4. Squeeze the lemon juice straight over the tray — the acid cuts through the olive oil and lifts the sweet tomato juices into something brighter. Crumble the feta evenly across the top in generous chunks, not a fine rubble, and drizzle with the final tablespoon of olive oil.
5. Return to the oven for 8–10 minutes, until the feta is warmed through, softened at the base, and turning golden at the peaks.
6. Taste the juices pooled in the tray and adjust — the feta brings serious salt, so you may only need a crack of black pepper, but taste now rather than at the table. Scatter over the lemon zest.
7. Tear the basil leaves over the hot tray so they wilt slightly into the juices, and bring it straight to the table with the crusty bread alongside for mopping. Keeps refrigerated for 3 days; portions reheat well in a hot oven, though it doesn't freeze.