August 6, 2021 • 28 mins
This prolific summer squash turns up as everything from a side dish staple to a baked good booster to a noodle substitute. Anney and Lauren dig into the science and history of the zucchini (and its blossoms).
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about zucchini. Yes, I love zucchini,
I um and zoodles. And I know there's some detractors
about zoodles, but we'll talk about those of more, Okay,
in the history bit Um. I have this summer Lasagnia
(00:32):
recipe that I make where you make basically the noodles
are strips of zucchini my recommendation. And I'm normally a
person who will I will go any links to cut corners.
When cooking, you really should salt and jaine the strips.
It makes a huge difference, huge difference just because the moisture.
(00:53):
Oh and if you don't do that, then it's going
to be a very uh SUPI it was on you, Okay, okay,
duly noted. Yeah, yes, um, I do love zucchini bread.
My mom makes this like zucchini castrole thing that's um.
My brothers aren't big zucchini fans, but they'll eat this
(01:15):
because it's like very salty. It's like soup and fried
onion strips and mushrooms crackers tomatoes um and fried zucchini. I.
I remember the first time I had fried zucchini. I
was living pretty isolated in Australia and somebody in our
(01:36):
group made them and it was like the most special,
very best thing because we've been kind of, you know,
eating whatever we could find. This is making it sound
worse than it is. It's just like we didn't have
fried foods um, but that was so this is a
special yeah, special occasion. U. Yeah. I I love zucchini
(01:56):
as well. I love the we we just recorded an
episode about tater tots um earlier today, and I like
how in contrast to tater tots, which we're both like
kind of met about, like we're like, yeah, no, zucchini,
zucchini is hecking great. I adore this vegetable. This is
really really my jam. Um. Yeah, yeah, I love zucchini.
(02:18):
Have grown zucchini. Um. I it's one of the few
vegetables that like, if I know that I'm gonna if
I if I know that I'm going to be like
struggling to actually make myself cook and eat food because
sometimes it's just so much work. Um, I'll just buy
a few zucchini and I'll just like roast them off
(02:39):
in a big batch and then put them in everything
I eat to give it some kind of like vegetable
content for the next few days. And it's delightful. Yes
we um. We previously did an episode about pumpkin um,
which is related. You can see that if you like to.
(03:02):
I'm surprised we haven't done more squash. We gotta makeup.
We've gotta makeup for some some some time. Uh suprise,
that's only want. And it always, it always seems kind
of overwhelming. I'm always like, oh, I don't know, I
don't know your words. Oh, yes, well speaking up, I
(03:24):
guess question. Yeah, zucchini, what is it? Well? Um Zucchini
is a type of summer squash, meaning it's a relatively soft,
tender type of squash that was developed to be picked
in the summer before it would um form hard seeds
(03:48):
and a hard rind like it's winter squash cousins. Um
Zucchini is often called vegetable marrowmorrow or um courgette outside
the United States, um the latter names ms from its
botanical name. It is a member of the gourd family
uh coucurbytassier Um, which includes everything from pumpkin to watermelon,
(04:10):
to cucumbers to the lufa what yeah, like shower lufa.
That's a living thing. Well, I mean it was. I
mean it's not anymore. No, I feel terrible the plant.
Yeah yeah, Oh, I don't know why I feel so
(04:32):
bad for this plant. I don't know either, Like you
just admitted to to to zoodling zucchini, So I don't
think that's worse. Do you think I'm a boster? Because
I guess it's just the thought of like using this
dead plant to like clean my dirty body. Okay, all right,
(04:56):
I know it doesn't make sense. I have a lot
of opinions that I don't don't make Florida. I think
I'm just absorbing this information much like the loofah um goodness,
Well that that minor existential crisis aside um. Uh zucchini
(05:19):
itself um is of the species uh coucar beta peppo
um subspecies Peppo. Yes, and see Peppo is this broad
species that also includes stuff like acorn, squash um. Zucchini
plants though, are these kind of leafy, bushy vines that
put off these large green to yellow to golden flowers, which,
(05:42):
when pollinated, will grow oblong cylindrical fruit with a with
a thin edible skin. It'll be a yellow to deep
green and speckled with lighter spots in color. When the
fruit is ready to eat, the flesh inside is white,
pale yellow green in color, and crisp, with a lot
of juice that's really thick with mucilage, um and uh,
(06:05):
and it supports a column of pale, tender edible seeds.
Zucchini is most often used as a vegetable and can
be eaten raw, but I'd say more often is cooked
until tender um, steamed, sauteed, roasted, grilled, or fried um alone,
or with other firm vegetable um. It can be cooked
into soups or stews, can be hollowed out and stuffed
(06:27):
with some kind of tasty filling. It's relatively bland on
its own um. It tastes a little bit like fresh
and vegetable and a tiny bit sweet with a little
twinge of bitter um. Cooking will bring out more of
that natural sweetness. It can also be grated or pure
and added to sweet or savory breads. UM often quick breads,
which are made with chemical leaveners instead of like yeast
(06:48):
raising type processes and it doesn't add a lot of
flavor too quick breads, but can't help with texture um.
It provides like moisture and body um similar to to
like a grad at apples or apple sauce, or like
a mashed banana or pumpkin pure ah. The flowers are
also edible um. They can be stuffed with some kind
(07:08):
of savory filling UM, often like a blend of soft
cheese and herbs um, and then either deep fried or
sauteed with or without a coat of breading so good.
I don't know if I've ever had them, but I
really want to drive Squash blossoms are amazingly tasty. And
(07:30):
if you're if you're growing zucchini um yea. Zucchini flowers
come in male and female varieties UM, and you can
tell the difference because the female ones will have like
a wee baby squash growing down at the base of
the flower, So you want to pick the male ones
um so that you leave the female ones to grow
fruit for you. And and zucchini will fruit like if
(07:52):
if you've ever grown them, or even known someone who
had a patch in their backyard, they are prolific plant
um like like once the zucchini start coming, they don't
stop coming. Um, And it's like a lot of zucchini
and you wind up especially yeah, if you've planted multiple plants,
you're gonna wind up with like with like maybe like
(08:14):
four or five a week during peak season per plant. Um.
And so so that's how I think a lot of
these recipes for like zucchini breads and like like zucchini
please just get it out of my kitchen like started
developing because you're just like, Okay, what am I doing? Yeah? Yeah,
(08:36):
that makes sense because a lot of times, especially because
I live by myself, Like I recently, after we did
this ci launchro episode, I was like, I need all
the cilantro in the world, and I had way too
much cilantro, and I was like, looking online, how do
I use So I've tried all kinds of things now
and they've all been good. Yeah, I didn't know that
about zucchini. Um, well, what about the nutrition? Zucchini pretty
(09:00):
good for you, h Low in calories, lots of fiber,
a great smattering of vitamins and minerals in there. Um.
They contain very little protein and no fat really to
speak of, though, so um so even though they will
help fill you up to to keep you going, you
should pair them with some protein and fats. The thing
that I was reading, Uh, if squash and other um
coucarabit species make you kind of gassy, um, be sure
(09:23):
to cook them before you eat them. This will break
down some of the insoluble fiber in these vegetables, which
means that the bacteria in your gut don't have to
break down those fibers, which means the bacteria in your
gut will produce less gas as a byproduct. The things
search history a truly heroic amount of information about farts. Um.
(09:49):
Yea truly heroic um gosh. I was also reading the
bitterness in zucchini and related vegetables UM and some other
vegetables as well. UM comes from a group of compounds
called coucarbtassins. Yeah, um, and these generally occur in in
(10:11):
fairly small amounts in these vegetables, but when they occur
in very large amounts, they can cause symptoms of food
poisoning UM like nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stuff like that. There
enough so that UM like they're occasionally have been seed
recalls like this particular strain of zucchini grown from this
particular batch of seeds has just been given people a
(10:33):
bad time. So um, yeah, there was a seed recall
for those in and um somewhere in the UK. That's
interesting because UM, I once got violently ill over what
now is like that was way too much squashy reading.
But it was like spaghetti squash with zucchini and squash
(10:53):
in it. And I got so sick into this day,
Like I was, I was afraid that I had developed
some like yeah, in tolerance or allergies, so I get
nervous about it. But that's interesting. That gives me hope
that maybe I just went overboard that Yeah, variety. Variety
is so important in dietary conversations. Yeah, it was so
(11:18):
good when I was eat again. UM. We do have
a couple of numbers for you. Zucchini is the most
widely distributed and profitable summer squash. UM. China produces the
most by far, like eight point four million metric tons
a year, which is almost half of the world supply UM.
(11:40):
But but it has grown around the world. UM. The
US usually imports the most, and there are festivals centered
around zucchini UM over Labor Day and oh that's Ohio.
There is a four day Zucchini Fest which is builled
as the biggest party in central Ohio. UM, which I love. Yeah.
(12:02):
It's got bands like a pageant, a car show, carnival rides.
UM local brewery brew Dog makes a zucchini beer for
the festival. Um. There's also one out in Hayward, California,
in the third week of August. Um. It's this Bay
Area event that attracts some thirty thousand people every year.
(12:23):
Thirty thousand people. Yeah, I love it. People love zucchi,
they do. And a festival that also true, very true
excuses the party. Yes, yes, I mean I still one
day I would love to take a year and just
go to a bunch of food festivals and trying to
(12:43):
win a bunch of stuff. I'm with the crowns and
the scepters. I want it all. I'm not in earning
any food eating contest, so that's not my game. Okay, okay,
but um, but but food pageantry. You're going to get
into the pageantry? Okay, Yeah, there's an angle can be
good at something there, I know it. I will have
(13:05):
that Kale scepter. But in the meantime, we do have
a lot of history for you about the zucchini. We do, um,
But first we've got a quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(13:29):
thank you. Uh So, the the Kuckarbit family originated in
what's now India in the late Cretaceous period, so like
sixty six to a d million years ago, you know,
like when dinosaurs were walking around. Wow. Yeah, I wonder
(13:50):
if the dinosaurs were into them, you know, I bet
they were, but they were, and certainly it seems like
some animals were because because the family got distributed through
every continent except Antarctica. Um. Researchers think that either birds
carry the seeds across whole dang oceans and their digestive tracks,
or that the gourds, Um, we're we're hardy enough to
(14:12):
float all the way across oceans and make new landfall. Um.
The zucchini genus itself split off nine to twenty three
million years ago or so um in Central or South America. Yes. Um.
And it gets kind of confusing because I've read in
(14:32):
places that the zucchini is both pretty new and not
so new. So it's kind of like it's kind of
like the the species has been around for a very
long time. UM. The specific variety that we call a
zucchini UM and what that looks like is much more recent. Yes,
(14:56):
so we'll try to get dig through all of that. U.
Zucchini or the squash that it descends from, originated in
Central America and Mexico going back to seven thousand to
five thousand, five hundred BC. UM ce Peppo is believed
to be one of the first domesticated species. The oldest
known remains were discovered in Mexico and are thought to
date back to eight thousand, seven hundred fifty b c. UM.
(15:19):
This same species has also been discovered at other archaeological
sites in Missouri and Mississippi from about four thousand to
fourteen hundred BC. Thinking some experts to suspect they were
domesticated separately in different locations. UM. They were integral to
many people in these areas, and we're a part of
the Staple three sister crops, which we've discussed many times.
(15:41):
By hundred CE, these crops had reached what would later
become the northeastern US. Pretty much all of the squash
was used. People would boil them or steam them, sometimes
with the blossoms and animal fat. Slice squashes and blossoms
were dried for the winter, while the seeds were roasted
or boiled. Sometimes the rhines were thick enough they would
be dried and used for storage, or cut into spirals
(16:03):
and used to make mats. As colonizers arrived at these
squashes were transported back to Europe and all over the world.
When they arrived in Italy, they were given the name
zucchino and yes, in France they were called courgette, a
name the English later adopted, which was news to me.
Yeah yeah um, but but right, okay, So, so the
(16:25):
Italian word first squash was zuka um, and zucchino is
a diminutive form of that, so like like well, like
a little baby squash cute. Yeah um, that's singular, though,
Zucchini is the plural, yes, which almost tripped me up
when I did our opening question, because that was like
(16:45):
the singular do um. Records show that q curbata fruits
of all sizes and maturities were being used in Italian
kitchens by the mid sixteenth century. In about fo years later,
younger and rounder varieties, perhaps zucchini as we think of it,
were mentioned as being their own separate ingredients. Early colonists
(17:11):
who arrived in North America grew various types of winter squash,
a name they picked up from indigenous people's squash. George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson were big fans and growers of squash,
and yeah, historical evidence suggests that zucchini may actually be
a relatively new cultivar. It wasn't specifically documented until a
horticultural book at of Milan in nineteen o one. UM
(17:34):
most likely bred in Italy in the late eighteen hundreds.
That being said, they probably did develop before that. As
mentioned earlier, UM, the Italian diminutive zucchini was first recorded
in the nineteenth century. It was used to refer to
these small, dried up gourds that served as tobacco storage vessels. However,
(17:54):
it didn't take long for the words meaning to shift
gears by the eighteen forties, instead referring to young and
toly elongated squash. Italian art from this time often depicted
various types of squash, and Italians were fans of using
squash in their cooking, whether boiled, steam, stuffed, baked, fried,
you name it. The first written instances of zucchini written
(18:16):
in the US started popping up towards the end of
the nineteenth century, with cooks using pearl ash as the
chemical leavening product. Um Zucchini weren't really popular in the
US until the mid nineteen hundreds, though largely thanks to
arriving Italian immigrants. Before that, you'd be hard pressed to
find zukine American homes or commercial kitchens, though in the
(18:40):
U S publications were seeing the praises of the quote
Italian squash, and during World War Two it was a
crop in many victory gardens, which, as we've discussed, not
always good for a crop's reputation. Sometimes a lot of
times people got tired of it. Let's talk pride zucchini.
(19:01):
According to Charlie Pellegrini, his grandmother, a Tuscany native who
immigrated to Pennsylvania named Rose Marie Tambollini, is largely to
thank for the stacy snack. And I was so surprised
to find a whole article about this. I was very happy.
Her family had owned these restaurants, and they were cooks,
(19:22):
and they would take zucchini, slice them into thin strips,
and then fry them up in Rose's daughter and Charlie's mother, Mary,
along with her sister and her husband, opened a small
restaurant called Seventh Street Cafe in an area that was
more known for its bar. Yeah. So Mary got to
thinking looking for a salty appetizer slash side that would
(19:45):
go well with beer and arrived at these thin fried
strips of zucchini. At the time, zucchini still wasn't well
known in this country, so she had a bit of
trouble selling them, and even offered free samples on the
streets to try to get people to give them a chance.
Staff members would order order fried zucchini performatively enjoy it
(20:06):
to convince patrons to try it, which I know it's
kind of dubious work practice, but does crack me up. Um.
It took time, but these efforts did pay off. By
the time the restaurant changed their name to F. Tambollini's
Seventh Street in the nineteen sixties, the fried zucchini was
a popular menu item. The restaurant was going through about
(20:27):
fifty pounds of fried zucchini a day in the nineteen nineties,
and their websites r L was Eat zucchini dot com.
They ended up closing in but they were hugely important
in popularizing this dish. They were like the fried zucchini restaurant, right,
love it? Yes. And then, thanks in part to the
(20:50):
popularity of low carb diets like paleo, spiralizers started trending
in the US. UM. So you've probably seen these, but
basically you're like, well, there's a couple of different devices
that do it, but you basically kind of use this
crank in a blade to make spiral shapes out of
many many things, but often vegetables. Um. People use these
(21:12):
gadgets to make a long noodle like vegetable replacements or
vegetable parallels to noodles and dishes like spaghetti. Um. And
out of this came the term zoodle, the zucchini noodle.
I have a spiralizer. I love it. I've used it
for all kinds of things. I would say that, as
we've often discussed, it's better to not think of these
as noodle substitutes. Um. Even though I just described the way, UM,
(21:36):
it's more of like the shape and the sauce transporting aspect,
and less the taste and texture of like a starchy
uh wheat noodle. Yeah, another way to eat zucchini yeah, yeah,
I always I get really mad about zoodle's actually, and
like other I'm like, I'm like, just don't call it.
Just don't call it a noodle. Like you're like, oh man,
(21:58):
it's zucchini and I've tasty sauce on it. I'm like, heck,
yeah you did feed that to me. If you're like
it's a noodle, I'm like, it's not. And now I'm mad, right,
um yeah. And there were actually some people who of
the same mindset were like, don't call it a zoodle. Yeah,
(22:19):
it's it's it's it's fine, it's a cute name. Um
uh yeah. And uh. Some of the headlines that I
ran across from the past few years um included phrasing
like um like like courgette crisis or courgette like calamity
(22:39):
or something like that. I think mostly because it sounds fun,
but um but basically, um, just some of the crops
in Europe of zucchini UM were lower than expected due
to climate change and changing temperatures and so uh so, yeah,
the crops just didn't come in as well, and so
um there you know, I read reports of the of
(23:02):
the zucchini shelves being empty in England empty. Um so
oh no, and it you know, it was in conversation
about about how how we think about our food and
about how our food gets to us, and you know,
(23:25):
maybe like maybe we need to reconsider that, like maybe
zucchini is not a winter food, you know, it's you know,
maybe we don't need to eat it in January. So yeah,
it does taste like summer to me. It does. It's
a very yeah right ah fresh taste. Oh, stomach is growling.
(23:53):
So that's what we have to say about zucchini for now.
It is. Um. We do have some listener mail for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
thank you. We're back with listener summer. Yeah sure, sure,
(24:25):
how I feel, Sarah wrote, I just listened to your
salant episode and I know who Brittain and Wilson are. Yes,
thank you always for helping us solve these mysteries, Um continued.
Britain is Nathaniel Lord Britton, who, along with his wife
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, founded the New York Botanical Garden in
y b G in the Bronx, New York, Percy Wilson
(24:48):
was his assistant. If you want to learn more about
them or other food plants, I highly recommend checking out
the n y B. G Merits Library and the Humanities
Institute has a series of food at lecture recording available
for free. Oh cool, Yeah, thank you? Yes, And I
visited that garden and it's very lovely. Oh cool. Oh
(25:10):
I haven't been. Okay Um on my list, Amanda wrote
your roasted chicken with grapes rant made me think of
a Hello fresh meal I once made of chicken and
roasted grapes and put me down the trade of thought.
Where do these beautiful, magical packages of ingredients come from?
What's the history behind all these new meal kit subscription services? Um?
(25:32):
You do have these in the States, I'm assuming you must. Uh.
What is the real environmental impact of meal subscription kits
versus regular food from the grocery store. I'm pretty jazzed
about the local food we have grown here in Manitoba, Canada,
and have found both the winter um once a year
grain lagom and other things and a summer fresh vegg
a CSA, plus a few other streams of locally produced food.
(25:55):
But it's nice to take a break from serious cooking
and meal planning in the off seasons. So I'd like
to suggest my first episode recommendation of meal kit delivery services.
Thank you again for all you do. Only you guys
can make me appreciate and crave one of my most
hated candies, tutsie roles, and yes, all the food cravings.
I really need to follow the advice of some of
(26:16):
your brilliant listeners and plan my infrequent grocery trips based
on what is coming in your feed, but usually can't
wait that long to dive into your new episodes. Oh
I hear you. We like have a longer lead time
and we know what we're going to record, and I
still make this mistake every time. Every time. It's ridiculous. Yeah,
(26:39):
that is a genius. Our listeners are brilliant and that
is a genius idea. Yeah, we do have food kits here.
I think this would be a great episode topic to
do you. I too have like tried to deep dive
some of these questions, but if I could do it
for work, that would be great. Yeah, Yeah, let's do out.
(27:00):
I'm a clock that sounds perfectly um and yeah, I
I love I love c S. A S and all
that stuff too. There's just something about like the kind
of surprise delivery aspect that I'm like, oh, in an
odd way. And I know my friends have told me,
like complained about my terrible habits around this, but in
(27:21):
an odd way, my like I only go to the
grocery store every two weeks and now I'm down to
these five ingredients has become really fun for me because
I have to I have to come up with something.
I have to experiment in ways that I never would
have before, and so far everything's been pretty good. I
just made like a really nice couscous that I had
(27:43):
to get really creative with and it worked out. Heck, yeah, yes,
so yes added to the list. Um, we promised, there's
a list. It is quite a mess, but there is
a little um And thanks to both of those listeners
for writing. If you would like to write to us,
(28:04):
that you can or emails hello at favor pod dot com.
And we are also in social media. You can find
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Villain Fagan and
(28:25):
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about zucchini. Yes, I love zucchini,
I um and zoodles. And I know there's some detractors
about zoodles, but we'll talk about those of more, Okay,
in the history bit Um. I have this summer Lasagnia
(00:32):
recipe that I make where you make basically the noodles
are strips of zucchini my recommendation. And I'm normally a
person who will I will go any links to cut corners.
When cooking, you really should salt and jaine the strips.
It makes a huge difference, huge difference just because the moisture.
(00:53):
Oh and if you don't do that, then it's going
to be a very uh SUPI it was on you, Okay, okay,
duly noted. Yeah, yes, um, I do love zucchini bread.
My mom makes this like zucchini castrole thing that's um.
My brothers aren't big zucchini fans, but they'll eat this
(01:15):
because it's like very salty. It's like soup and fried
onion strips and mushrooms crackers tomatoes um and fried zucchini. I.
I remember the first time I had fried zucchini. I
was living pretty isolated in Australia and somebody in our
(01:36):
group made them and it was like the most special,
very best thing because we've been kind of, you know,
eating whatever we could find. This is making it sound
worse than it is. It's just like we didn't have
fried foods um, but that was so this is a
special yeah, special occasion. U. Yeah. I I love zucchini
(01:56):
as well. I love the we we just recorded an
episode about tater tots um earlier today, and I like
how in contrast to tater tots, which we're both like
kind of met about, like we're like, yeah, no, zucchini,
zucchini is hecking great. I adore this vegetable. This is
really really my jam. Um. Yeah, yeah, I love zucchini.
(02:18):
Have grown zucchini. Um. I it's one of the few
vegetables that like, if I know that I'm gonna if
I if I know that I'm going to be like
struggling to actually make myself cook and eat food because
sometimes it's just so much work. Um, I'll just buy
a few zucchini and I'll just like roast them off
(02:39):
in a big batch and then put them in everything
I eat to give it some kind of like vegetable
content for the next few days. And it's delightful. Yes
we um. We previously did an episode about pumpkin um,
which is related. You can see that if you like to.
(03:02):
I'm surprised we haven't done more squash. We gotta makeup.
We've gotta makeup for some some some time. Uh suprise,
that's only want. And it always, it always seems kind
of overwhelming. I'm always like, oh, I don't know, I
don't know your words. Oh, yes, well speaking up, I
(03:24):
guess question. Yeah, zucchini, what is it? Well? Um Zucchini
is a type of summer squash, meaning it's a relatively soft,
tender type of squash that was developed to be picked
in the summer before it would um form hard seeds
(03:48):
and a hard rind like it's winter squash cousins. Um
Zucchini is often called vegetable marrowmorrow or um courgette outside
the United States, um the latter names ms from its
botanical name. It is a member of the gourd family
uh coucurbytassier Um, which includes everything from pumpkin to watermelon,
(04:10):
to cucumbers to the lufa what yeah, like shower lufa.
That's a living thing. Well, I mean it was. I
mean it's not anymore. No, I feel terrible the plant.
Yeah yeah, Oh, I don't know why I feel so
(04:32):
bad for this plant. I don't know either, Like you
just admitted to to to zoodling zucchini, So I don't
think that's worse. Do you think I'm a boster? Because
I guess it's just the thought of like using this
dead plant to like clean my dirty body. Okay, all right,
(04:56):
I know it doesn't make sense. I have a lot
of opinions that I don't don't make Florida. I think
I'm just absorbing this information much like the loofah um goodness,
Well that that minor existential crisis aside um. Uh zucchini
(05:19):
itself um is of the species uh coucar beta peppo
um subspecies Peppo. Yes, and see Peppo is this broad
species that also includes stuff like acorn, squash um. Zucchini
plants though, are these kind of leafy, bushy vines that
put off these large green to yellow to golden flowers, which,
(05:42):
when pollinated, will grow oblong cylindrical fruit with a with
a thin edible skin. It'll be a yellow to deep
green and speckled with lighter spots in color. When the
fruit is ready to eat, the flesh inside is white,
pale yellow green in color, and crisp, with a lot
of juice that's really thick with mucilage, um and uh,
(06:05):
and it supports a column of pale, tender edible seeds.
Zucchini is most often used as a vegetable and can
be eaten raw, but I'd say more often is cooked
until tender um, steamed, sauteed, roasted, grilled, or fried um alone,
or with other firm vegetable um. It can be cooked
into soups or stews, can be hollowed out and stuffed
(06:27):
with some kind of tasty filling. It's relatively bland on
its own um. It tastes a little bit like fresh
and vegetable and a tiny bit sweet with a little
twinge of bitter um. Cooking will bring out more of
that natural sweetness. It can also be grated or pure
and added to sweet or savory breads. UM often quick breads,
which are made with chemical leaveners instead of like yeast
(06:48):
raising type processes and it doesn't add a lot of
flavor too quick breads, but can't help with texture um.
It provides like moisture and body um similar to to
like a grad at apples or apple sauce, or like
a mashed banana or pumpkin pure ah. The flowers are
also edible um. They can be stuffed with some kind
(07:08):
of savory filling UM, often like a blend of soft
cheese and herbs um, and then either deep fried or
sauteed with or without a coat of breading so good.
I don't know if I've ever had them, but I
really want to drive Squash blossoms are amazingly tasty. And
(07:30):
if you're if you're growing zucchini um yea. Zucchini flowers
come in male and female varieties UM, and you can
tell the difference because the female ones will have like
a wee baby squash growing down at the base of
the flower, So you want to pick the male ones
um so that you leave the female ones to grow
fruit for you. And and zucchini will fruit like if
(07:52):
if you've ever grown them, or even known someone who
had a patch in their backyard, they are prolific plant
um like like once the zucchini start coming, they don't
stop coming. Um, And it's like a lot of zucchini
and you wind up especially yeah, if you've planted multiple plants,
you're gonna wind up with like with like maybe like
(08:14):
four or five a week during peak season per plant. Um.
And so so that's how I think a lot of
these recipes for like zucchini breads and like like zucchini
please just get it out of my kitchen like started
developing because you're just like, Okay, what am I doing? Yeah? Yeah,
(08:36):
that makes sense because a lot of times, especially because
I live by myself, Like I recently, after we did
this ci launchro episode, I was like, I need all
the cilantro in the world, and I had way too
much cilantro, and I was like, looking online, how do
I use So I've tried all kinds of things now
and they've all been good. Yeah, I didn't know that
about zucchini. Um, well, what about the nutrition? Zucchini pretty
(09:00):
good for you, h Low in calories, lots of fiber,
a great smattering of vitamins and minerals in there. Um.
They contain very little protein and no fat really to
speak of, though, so um so even though they will
help fill you up to to keep you going, you
should pair them with some protein and fats. The thing
that I was reading, Uh, if squash and other um
coucarabit species make you kind of gassy, um, be sure
(09:23):
to cook them before you eat them. This will break
down some of the insoluble fiber in these vegetables, which
means that the bacteria in your gut don't have to
break down those fibers, which means the bacteria in your
gut will produce less gas as a byproduct. The things
search history a truly heroic amount of information about farts. Um.
(09:49):
Yea truly heroic um gosh. I was also reading the
bitterness in zucchini and related vegetables UM and some other
vegetables as well. UM comes from a group of compounds
called coucarbtassins. Yeah, um, and these generally occur in in
(10:11):
fairly small amounts in these vegetables, but when they occur
in very large amounts, they can cause symptoms of food
poisoning UM like nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stuff like that. There
enough so that UM like they're occasionally have been seed
recalls like this particular strain of zucchini grown from this
particular batch of seeds has just been given people a
(10:33):
bad time. So um, yeah, there was a seed recall
for those in and um somewhere in the UK. That's
interesting because UM, I once got violently ill over what
now is like that was way too much squashy reading.
But it was like spaghetti squash with zucchini and squash
(10:53):
in it. And I got so sick into this day,
Like I was, I was afraid that I had developed
some like yeah, in tolerance or allergies, so I get
nervous about it. But that's interesting. That gives me hope
that maybe I just went overboard that Yeah, variety. Variety
is so important in dietary conversations. Yeah, it was so
(11:18):
good when I was eat again. UM. We do have
a couple of numbers for you. Zucchini is the most
widely distributed and profitable summer squash. UM. China produces the
most by far, like eight point four million metric tons
a year, which is almost half of the world supply UM.
(11:40):
But but it has grown around the world. UM. The
US usually imports the most, and there are festivals centered
around zucchini UM over Labor Day and oh that's Ohio.
There is a four day Zucchini Fest which is builled
as the biggest party in central Ohio. UM, which I love. Yeah.
(12:02):
It's got bands like a pageant, a car show, carnival rides.
UM local brewery brew Dog makes a zucchini beer for
the festival. Um. There's also one out in Hayward, California,
in the third week of August. Um. It's this Bay
Area event that attracts some thirty thousand people every year.
(12:23):
Thirty thousand people. Yeah, I love it. People love zucchi,
they do. And a festival that also true, very true
excuses the party. Yes, yes, I mean I still one
day I would love to take a year and just
go to a bunch of food festivals and trying to
(12:43):
win a bunch of stuff. I'm with the crowns and
the scepters. I want it all. I'm not in earning
any food eating contest, so that's not my game. Okay, okay,
but um, but but food pageantry. You're going to get
into the pageantry? Okay, Yeah, there's an angle can be
good at something there, I know it. I will have
(13:05):
that Kale scepter. But in the meantime, we do have
a lot of history for you about the zucchini. We do, um,
But first we've got a quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(13:29):
thank you. Uh So, the the Kuckarbit family originated in
what's now India in the late Cretaceous period, so like
sixty six to a d million years ago, you know,
like when dinosaurs were walking around. Wow. Yeah, I wonder
(13:50):
if the dinosaurs were into them, you know, I bet
they were, but they were, and certainly it seems like
some animals were because because the family got distributed through
every continent except Antarctica. Um. Researchers think that either birds
carry the seeds across whole dang oceans and their digestive tracks,
or that the gourds, Um, we're we're hardy enough to
(14:12):
float all the way across oceans and make new landfall. Um.
The zucchini genus itself split off nine to twenty three
million years ago or so um in Central or South America. Yes. Um.
And it gets kind of confusing because I've read in
(14:32):
places that the zucchini is both pretty new and not
so new. So it's kind of like it's kind of
like the the species has been around for a very
long time. UM. The specific variety that we call a
zucchini UM and what that looks like is much more recent. Yes,
(14:56):
so we'll try to get dig through all of that. U.
Zucchini or the squash that it descends from, originated in
Central America and Mexico going back to seven thousand to
five thousand, five hundred BC. UM ce Peppo is believed
to be one of the first domesticated species. The oldest
known remains were discovered in Mexico and are thought to
date back to eight thousand, seven hundred fifty b c. UM.
(15:19):
This same species has also been discovered at other archaeological
sites in Missouri and Mississippi from about four thousand to
fourteen hundred BC. Thinking some experts to suspect they were
domesticated separately in different locations. UM. They were integral to
many people in these areas, and we're a part of
the Staple three sister crops, which we've discussed many times.
(15:41):
By hundred CE, these crops had reached what would later
become the northeastern US. Pretty much all of the squash
was used. People would boil them or steam them, sometimes
with the blossoms and animal fat. Slice squashes and blossoms
were dried for the winter, while the seeds were roasted
or boiled. Sometimes the rhines were thick enough they would
be dried and used for storage, or cut into spirals
(16:03):
and used to make mats. As colonizers arrived at these
squashes were transported back to Europe and all over the world.
When they arrived in Italy, they were given the name
zucchino and yes, in France they were called courgette, a
name the English later adopted, which was news to me.
Yeah yeah um, but but right, okay, So, so the
(16:25):
Italian word first squash was zuka um, and zucchino is
a diminutive form of that, so like like well, like
a little baby squash cute. Yeah um, that's singular, though,
Zucchini is the plural, yes, which almost tripped me up
when I did our opening question, because that was like
(16:45):
the singular do um. Records show that q curbata fruits
of all sizes and maturities were being used in Italian
kitchens by the mid sixteenth century. In about fo years later,
younger and rounder varieties, perhaps zucchini as we think of it,
were mentioned as being their own separate ingredients. Early colonists
(17:11):
who arrived in North America grew various types of winter squash,
a name they picked up from indigenous people's squash. George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson were big fans and growers of squash,
and yeah, historical evidence suggests that zucchini may actually be
a relatively new cultivar. It wasn't specifically documented until a
horticultural book at of Milan in nineteen o one. UM
(17:34):
most likely bred in Italy in the late eighteen hundreds.
That being said, they probably did develop before that. As
mentioned earlier, UM, the Italian diminutive zucchini was first recorded
in the nineteenth century. It was used to refer to
these small, dried up gourds that served as tobacco storage vessels. However,
(17:54):
it didn't take long for the words meaning to shift
gears by the eighteen forties, instead referring to young and
toly elongated squash. Italian art from this time often depicted
various types of squash, and Italians were fans of using
squash in their cooking, whether boiled, steam, stuffed, baked, fried,
you name it. The first written instances of zucchini written
(18:16):
in the US started popping up towards the end of
the nineteenth century, with cooks using pearl ash as the
chemical leavening product. Um Zucchini weren't really popular in the
US until the mid nineteen hundreds, though largely thanks to
arriving Italian immigrants. Before that, you'd be hard pressed to
find zukine American homes or commercial kitchens, though in the
(18:40):
U S publications were seeing the praises of the quote
Italian squash, and during World War Two it was a
crop in many victory gardens, which, as we've discussed, not
always good for a crop's reputation. Sometimes a lot of
times people got tired of it. Let's talk pride zucchini.
(19:01):
According to Charlie Pellegrini, his grandmother, a Tuscany native who
immigrated to Pennsylvania named Rose Marie Tambollini, is largely to
thank for the stacy snack. And I was so surprised
to find a whole article about this. I was very happy.
Her family had owned these restaurants, and they were cooks,
(19:22):
and they would take zucchini, slice them into thin strips,
and then fry them up in Rose's daughter and Charlie's mother, Mary,
along with her sister and her husband, opened a small
restaurant called Seventh Street Cafe in an area that was
more known for its bar. Yeah. So Mary got to
thinking looking for a salty appetizer slash side that would
(19:45):
go well with beer and arrived at these thin fried
strips of zucchini. At the time, zucchini still wasn't well
known in this country, so she had a bit of
trouble selling them, and even offered free samples on the
streets to try to get people to give them a chance.
Staff members would order order fried zucchini performatively enjoy it
(20:06):
to convince patrons to try it, which I know it's
kind of dubious work practice, but does crack me up. Um.
It took time, but these efforts did pay off. By
the time the restaurant changed their name to F. Tambollini's
Seventh Street in the nineteen sixties, the fried zucchini was
a popular menu item. The restaurant was going through about
(20:27):
fifty pounds of fried zucchini a day in the nineteen nineties,
and their websites r L was Eat zucchini dot com.
They ended up closing in but they were hugely important
in popularizing this dish. They were like the fried zucchini restaurant, right,
love it? Yes. And then, thanks in part to the
(20:50):
popularity of low carb diets like paleo, spiralizers started trending
in the US. UM. So you've probably seen these, but
basically you're like, well, there's a couple of different devices
that do it, but you basically kind of use this
crank in a blade to make spiral shapes out of
many many things, but often vegetables. Um. People use these
(21:12):
gadgets to make a long noodle like vegetable replacements or
vegetable parallels to noodles and dishes like spaghetti. Um. And
out of this came the term zoodle, the zucchini noodle.
I have a spiralizer. I love it. I've used it
for all kinds of things. I would say that, as
we've often discussed, it's better to not think of these
as noodle substitutes. Um. Even though I just described the way, UM,
(21:36):
it's more of like the shape and the sauce transporting aspect,
and less the taste and texture of like a starchy
uh wheat noodle. Yeah, another way to eat zucchini yeah, yeah,
I always I get really mad about zoodle's actually, and
like other I'm like, I'm like, just don't call it.
Just don't call it a noodle. Like you're like, oh man,
(21:58):
it's zucchini and I've tasty sauce on it. I'm like, heck,
yeah you did feed that to me. If you're like
it's a noodle, I'm like, it's not. And now I'm mad, right,
um yeah. And there were actually some people who of
the same mindset were like, don't call it a zoodle. Yeah,
(22:19):
it's it's it's it's fine, it's a cute name. Um
uh yeah. And uh. Some of the headlines that I
ran across from the past few years um included phrasing
like um like like courgette crisis or courgette like calamity
(22:39):
or something like that. I think mostly because it sounds fun,
but um but basically, um, just some of the crops
in Europe of zucchini UM were lower than expected due
to climate change and changing temperatures and so uh so, yeah,
the crops just didn't come in as well, and so
um there you know, I read reports of the of
(23:02):
the zucchini shelves being empty in England empty. Um so
oh no, and it you know, it was in conversation
about about how how we think about our food and
about how our food gets to us, and you know,
(23:25):
maybe like maybe we need to reconsider that, like maybe
zucchini is not a winter food, you know, it's you know,
maybe we don't need to eat it in January. So yeah,
it does taste like summer to me. It does. It's
a very yeah right ah fresh taste. Oh, stomach is growling.
(23:53):
So that's what we have to say about zucchini for now.
It is. Um. We do have some listener mail for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
thank you. We're back with listener summer. Yeah sure, sure,
(24:25):
how I feel, Sarah wrote, I just listened to your
salant episode and I know who Brittain and Wilson are. Yes,
thank you always for helping us solve these mysteries, Um continued.
Britain is Nathaniel Lord Britton, who, along with his wife
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, founded the New York Botanical Garden in
y b G in the Bronx, New York, Percy Wilson
(24:48):
was his assistant. If you want to learn more about
them or other food plants, I highly recommend checking out
the n y B. G Merits Library and the Humanities
Institute has a series of food at lecture recording available
for free. Oh cool, Yeah, thank you? Yes, And I
visited that garden and it's very lovely. Oh cool. Oh
(25:10):
I haven't been. Okay Um on my list, Amanda wrote
your roasted chicken with grapes rant made me think of
a Hello fresh meal I once made of chicken and
roasted grapes and put me down the trade of thought.
Where do these beautiful, magical packages of ingredients come from?
What's the history behind all these new meal kit subscription services? Um?
(25:32):
You do have these in the States, I'm assuming you must. Uh.
What is the real environmental impact of meal subscription kits
versus regular food from the grocery store. I'm pretty jazzed
about the local food we have grown here in Manitoba, Canada,
and have found both the winter um once a year
grain lagom and other things and a summer fresh vegg
a CSA, plus a few other streams of locally produced food.
(25:55):
But it's nice to take a break from serious cooking
and meal planning in the off seasons. So I'd like
to suggest my first episode recommendation of meal kit delivery services.
Thank you again for all you do. Only you guys
can make me appreciate and crave one of my most
hated candies, tutsie roles, and yes, all the food cravings.
I really need to follow the advice of some of
(26:16):
your brilliant listeners and plan my infrequent grocery trips based
on what is coming in your feed, but usually can't
wait that long to dive into your new episodes. Oh
I hear you. We like have a longer lead time
and we know what we're going to record, and I
still make this mistake every time. Every time. It's ridiculous. Yeah,
(26:39):
that is a genius. Our listeners are brilliant and that
is a genius idea. Yeah, we do have food kits here.
I think this would be a great episode topic to
do you. I too have like tried to deep dive
some of these questions, but if I could do it
for work, that would be great. Yeah, Yeah, let's do out.
(27:00):
I'm a clock that sounds perfectly um and yeah, I
I love I love c S. A S and all
that stuff too. There's just something about like the kind
of surprise delivery aspect that I'm like, oh, in an
odd way. And I know my friends have told me,
like complained about my terrible habits around this, but in
(27:21):
an odd way, my like I only go to the
grocery store every two weeks and now I'm down to
these five ingredients has become really fun for me because
I have to I have to come up with something.
I have to experiment in ways that I never would
have before, and so far everything's been pretty good. I
just made like a really nice couscous that I had
(27:43):
to get really creative with and it worked out. Heck, yeah, yes,
so yes added to the list. Um, we promised, there's
a list. It is quite a mess, but there is
a little um And thanks to both of those listeners
for writing. If you would like to write to us,
(28:04):
that you can or emails hello at favor pod dot com.
And we are also in social media. You can find
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Villain Fagan and
(28:25):
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.