zucchini

The singular can be zucchina or zucchino.

An Italian favourite, although many never get past the blossom stage (fiori or sciurilli) when they are used in a wide range of dishes. The vegetable itself is actually the swollen ovary of the flower, and as everyone knows, best eaten when tiny.

Gardeners in Naples developed zucchini from thick-skinned squash seeds brought back to the Old World by Colombus, and in the 17th century, proudly sent some to France's famous agricultural scientist Olivier de Serres, who was not impressed, cursing it as 'Naples’s and Spain’s revenge' as he spat it out.

The Italians, in the meantime, developed a number of delicious recipes, to prove de Serres wrong:

zucchini alla montanara: sliced and cooked in butter, with breadcrumbs soaked in milk and grated cheese.

zucchini alla napoletana: baked in the oven with tomato sauce and mozzarrella.