Light, sweet and easy to eat – why melons and other cool fruits rule August

Everyone who grew up by the Mediterranean Sea knows that a lazy day on the beach requires a certain level of planning. You should pack everything you’ll need, or may need, and get there early to secure a good spot. But the first thing you need to do when you get there – even before you spread out your blankets and put that sunscreen on – is to drop a watermelon in the sea, so that, by noon, when it’s so hot your skin feels as if it’s about to blister, it is ready for you, all cool and sweet. It’s just about the only thing capable of quenching your thirst and your hunger, while also cooling you down and giving you the sugar you need.

The other important bit about the watermelon – the part that separates wisdom from wishful thinking – is that you also need to tie a piece of string around it, complete with an empty plastic bottle at the other end, so that it bobs above the waves and marks the spot. This is something you learn the hard way – or at least we did. There is a very particular kind of disappointment that comes from standing waist-deep in the sea, staring into the blue, convinced that a whole watermelon cannot simply disappear. We searched. We dived. We accused passing currents. We briefly entertained the idea that another family had found it and were, at that very moment, enjoying our perfectly chilled watermelon. Then again, perhaps it is still out there somewhere, floating towards Sicily …

Perfect for summer … Yotam Ottolenghi’s cucumber, yoghurt and peanut soup. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian

This is the season of the cool fruits: cucumber, melon and watermelon are all at their peak and are perfect for the weather. They are light, sweet, easy to prepare and to eat, and, most importantly in August, cooling. They also don’t need to be cooked, unlike their autumnal cousins, pumpkins, squash and gourds. (If you do want to cook with them, though, the possibilities are almost endless. They are all especially good companions for salty things – feta, parmesan, anchovies, olives, prosciutto, the list goes on.)

Feta and watermelon is a classic combination for a reason, and the cheese also works incredibly well with other kinds of melons, as well as with chilli heat, such as in Anna Jones’s honeydew and green chilli salad (incidentally, that same piece also suggests a spicy grilled watermelon salad that looks just as punchily refreshing for a hot day). If your melon is sweet enough, you can crank up the chilli levels quite high – we speak from experience.

If cold soups are your thing in the summer – as they are for us – Yotam Ottolenghi has you covered with these two perfect summery numbers. Those, along with some mint, are everything you need to keep cool this August. Other than maybe a piece of string.

Our week in food

Art … chef’s knives. Photograph: Noctiluxx/Getty

Blades of glory | If you love your chef’s knives as much as we love ours, see them as a living work of art, as we do, and believe they deserve to be displayed with pride: these wooden knife magnets from Etsy will change your life. Your knives will never have looked so good.

Bargain hunt | The August sales are when we splurge on treats for our kitchens that we don’t actually need but really, really want. Department stores are still the best places to look for bargains, but there are some good things to be had online. We’re already on the hunt for Mauviel copper pans and cutlery from Sabre Paris – yes, they are expensive, even when discounted, so the trick is to divide the cost between the years of use and joy that you and your heirs will get from them. Then, magically, they seem a bit of a bargain.

In a pickle | On a recent trip to the US, we developed a fondness for Trader Joe’s dill pickle mustard. It definitely falls under the group of “hideoulicious” things we like yet are deeply ashamed of, but we’re admitting this publicly because we desperately need a top-up, should anyone happen to be flying back from the US any time soon …