Why do some gardeners whinge about having to beg friends to take their excess zucchini? Grow fewer, eat more - particularly the male and female flowers, stuffed, at the start of the season. As Antonio Carluccio says, zucchini may come last alphabetically but for Italians it is the first and most widely used, with the tomato. You can make the ubiquitous zucchini slice, or zucchini pickles or add it to ratatouille.
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In Keiyh Smith's Classic Vegetable Catalogue (1995, Lothian), the Australian organic gardener says zucchini was among cucurbits brought from Mexico to Spain in the 16th century and it was grown in the Po Valley of northern Italy 300 years ago. It was grown in the London vegetable garden of the Horticultural Society in 1859. In Australia, it became popular after the 1945 wave of Italian and Maltese migrants to this country.
Zucchine in Agrodolce is a typical dish in the cuisine of Sicily. Valentina Harris, born and educated in Rome, in Southern Italian Cooking (1993 Pavilion/Penguin Australia) includes a recipe in which crushed garlic is heated in olive oil, four large zucchini cut into matchsticks are added and cooked for 10 minutes. Stir in two teaspoons of red wine vinegar, two rinsed and dried salted anchovies, a tablespoon of sultanas (golden raisins) and a tablespoon of pine nut kernels. Mix all together and sprinkle with tiny pinch of sugar and cook for a further 10 minutes. Serve hot.
Polly Logmans took our photo of the harvest and her daughter, Jess Caley, snuck in and photo-bombed the shot. When we visited the Caley/Logmans garden in Cook (Kitchen Garden, February 2), the climbing zucchini "tromboncino" vine was starting to set fruit. This Italian heirloom variety of squash can be eaten when small but the triumphant shape of the mature fruit lifts the spirits of the kitchen gardener.
The necks of tromboncini do not have any seeds and that household uses it like a butternut pumpkin but they also slice and barbecue it. Polly says it is lots of fun and stores so well that tromboncini can be eaten until November.
Last week, a gardener from Murrumbateman brought small pale green-greyish mottled zucchini to a group of her Canberra friends. Cooked briefly, they were sweet, creamy and delicious. The variety goes by the unimaginative name of Greyzini.
Meanwhile, Christine Mounic (Kitchen Garden, September 15, 2020) recently gave me a firm round small fruit she said was a zucchini. Bright green and striped orange/yellow it was very beautiful. It sat on the kitchen bench and I sent photos to a number of vegie gardeners including horticulturists. Everyone said they thought it was a pumpkin.
Then Christine found the label, Zucchini "Black Max" illustrated by three deepest forest green fruit. The seedling was purchased from Bunnings Fyshwick and it came from Howlong Nursery's Advanced Vegetable Collection (pottedcolour.com.au). I contacted the grower who suggested the stripes might come from growing the zucchini just that little bit longer.
A bit of Googling found the summer squash Eight Ball zucchini from Burpee Seed Company in America. It appears to be identical to our striped Black Max. Burpee calls the little round charmer a fantastic stuffer, so that's what I did (recipe follows).
Stuffed "Black Max" zucchini
Ingredients
1 round zucchini "Black Max" or similar
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced into chunks
olive oil
small knob of fresh ginger, grated or chopped finely
small clove of garlic, minced or chopped finely
some natural cashews, broken in half
5 cherry tomatoes (homegrown Tommy Toe recommended)
1 tbsp Parmesan, grated (I used aged Parmigiano from Tutto Mawson)
handful of fresh chopped parsley, basil, marjoram
Method
Cut top off zucchini and save as a lid. Scoop out the seeds (I saved some but few looked viable).
Using a melon baller, scoop out flesh of zucchini leaving a slim layer of flesh next to the skin.
In a pan, gently sauté the sweet potato, zucchini, garlic and ginger in olive oil for about five minutes, add a good splash of water and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, for another five minutes. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper, tomatoes sliced in half or whole, cashews, chopped herbs, turn mixture over gently to blend then stuff the zucchini shell. Top with grated Parmesan.
Place in baking dish (I made a "nest" of foil to stop the single zucchini from rolling over and placed the zucchini "lid" on the side) and bake at 175C for 45 minutes or until piercing a piece of sweet potato with a fork or metal skewer indicates that it is tender.
