Today I proudly present a courgette harvest. From only three plants in the vegetable garden I get a crop like this at least once a week which means having to find something to do with them. They are probably the most reliable and generous plant in the plot. They are the plants that just keeps giving.
They are so versatile that they even look good in the flower border (header picture).
They are not indigenous of course, like a lot of our vegetables they were introduced from north and central America only comparatively recently. The Italians took to them first, cultivated and developed them and called them zucchini, the French second and called them courgette. In the UK we favour the French word. Italian immigrants returned the cultivated zucchini to the USA and consequently they have zucchini.
Today, the World's largest producers are China and India and the Ukraine.
Interestingly in Australia it is a zucchini but in New Zealand it is a courgette, Canada is split between French and English speaking provinces.
It's hard to think of any truly native vegetables, apart from seaweed, samphire and fungi. About the nearest we have would be things like sorrel, carrots and parsnips, which are all descended from native wild plants. Vegetables did not form a major part of our diet and family menus until the nineteenth century.
It wouldn't have suited me to be eating swede, turnip and wild beetroot, for certain my Mum would have been constantly nagging me to "Eat your vegetables, they are good for you"
Before moving on let me make it absolutely clear and to avoid any possible future litigation that I am not saying that my Mum was a nag!
Cereals remained the most important staple during the Early Middle Ages as rice was introduced late, and the potato was only introduced in the 16th century, and much later for the wider population. Barley, oats, and rye were eaten by the poor while wheat was generally more expensive. Today we get vegetables from all around the World fifty-two weeks of the year.
Anyway, what to do with a glut of them. Earlier this year we went to the Greek island of Skiathos and on the menu at our favourite taverna was deep fried courgette in tempura batter which we ordered probably every day, it was so good. Probably not that good for you I have to say, courgettes are not high in culinary food value and deep frying isn't so good either. On the positive side they do count as one of the 'Five a Day'.
We have given it a try and although it tastes really good we haven't yet mastered the presentation but we still have plenty of growing time to go to get it right.
Kim makes courgette fitters...
What we mostly do with them is make 'Courgetti Spaghetti', cut them into strips, fry in lemon juice and chilli flakes add them to pasta and anything else that is to hand. We have tried prawns, sausage, salmon, mushrooms and Halloumi cheese (not all together obviously) but our favourite is bacon lardons (unsmoked) and a generous covering of Parmesan cheese.
By the end of the growing season we have had enough of courgettes but for now it is still only August.
This is how we enjoyed it last night...
When I was a boy we didn't have pasta, my Dad liked regular English food and that didn't include pasta, rice (except in puddings) curry etc. In 1996 I went on holiday with him to Sorrento in Italy where hotel food consisted mainly of pasta. He went hungry for a couple of days but eventually gave in or suffer terminal malnutrition. I seem to remember that he liked it, a sort of Road to Damascus moment and pasta was always on the menu at home after that.
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