The French (and English) say courgette, the Italians (and Americans) zucchini. Here in Aotearoa we call this summer winner whatever we like, and – as long as you avoid a few slushy pitfalls – it’s delicious. 

Vibrant, light, tender, and delicate, the courgette is one of my favourite summer vegetables to cook.

Like lambs, courgettes are harvested as mere babes. The courgette is plucked at about 15cm long, but left to their own devices they grow to metre-long marrows, with tough skins and even tougher seeds.

It’s not only their deliciousness and youth that attracts me to the courgette – what other fresh produce has claim to not just one, but two of the coolest names in vegetalia? Zucchini. Courgette. Both names are absolute winners. The courgette is also called a baby marrow, but that makes me think of the bone marrow of a baby animal, and is therefore not that cool in my books.

For reference, and so that you actually learn a courgette fact today, “zucchini” is the Italian name (and if we’re being correct and pretentious, a single zucchini is in fact a “zucchina”), while “courgette” is the French.

Another fact: technically, the courgette is a berry, the “swollen ovary” of the courgette plant. Feel a bit sick to your stomach after that? You’re welcome. Let’s go find some swollen ovaries and cook them to perfection.

Where to find it

This week courgettes are $8.99/kg at Pak’nSave, $10.99/kg at New World, and (gulp) $13.49/kg at Countdown – about $2.70 each.

For you gardeners out there, the courgette is a blessing of a summer crop, with a reputation for overwhelming growers with its green produce. Courgette flowers are also a delicacy (try them stuffed with nutmeg-spiked ricotta, lightly battered and then deep fried like tempura), and they’re generally only available if you’re growing your own courgettes, as the flowers don’t last long after picking.

How to make it terrible

Listen, despite my love for the courgette: there are a few ways to it less than delightful.

Boiled courgette? Gag. Steamed? Ditto. Any cooking method that leaves you with a soggy, squishy bite is a no-go. Get that courgette away from that pot of water!

Another frequent offender: courgette fritters. These are a bit of a classic nowadays, made with a base of grated courgette, but if done wrong it’s a recipe ripe for ruination. An unthoroughly-squeezed pile of grated courgette will make for wet, watery fritters. You’ll eat them and wonder, “Why would I ever delve beyond a good old corn fritter, when this is the sodden price I pay?”

To make a solid courgette fritter, grate the courgette, then stir through a big pinch of salt and leave it in a sieve for 20 minutes, ideally over the sink so you don’t end up with a pool of bitter green courgette juice on your bench. Then – and this is important, as a recent cooking mishap of mine revealed – wrap the grated courgette in a cheesecloth or clean tea towel, and squeeze out the liquid until you can squeeze no more.

Seriously. Squeeze that grated courgette like you’re dangling from a cliff, and the handful of courgette is the hand of a handsome stranger who is keeping you from falling to your death. That’s the only route to a good fritter.

How to make it amazing

I don’t want my mantra of how to make vegetables taste great to become “fry it!” But. Have you tried a thinly sliced, pan fried, golden, juicy, lightly salted bite of courgette? Pure heaven. When fried or roasted until crispy, the courgette skin takes on an almost oceanic, seaweed-like flavour, and the flesh is melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Fried courgette is especially delectable with this beautiful and simple Ottolenghi-inspired pasta dish, alongside torn burrata, pesto, basil and edamame.

There are plenty of other ways to satiate your taste buds with a courgette, other than through copious oil. A good (well-squeezed) grated courgette and feta fritter is certainly tasty, and sliced courgette makes a lovely addition to a spring quiche. Barbecued, stuffed with rice and herbs then roasted, or even baked into a bread or cake – there are many ways to make the courgette sing.

Courgette is also one of the essential ingredients in the French dish ratatouille, the best summery vegetarian stew there is (and I’ll take this opportunity to apologise to the French nation for mistakenly saying ratatouille was Italian in the eggplant episode).

Courgette can also be cut into low-calorie “zoodles” with a spiralizer. I’ve never tried them, because I love the standard carby pasta and noodles, but various trusted sources give them the thumbs up. Plus, anything is better than no pasta at all.

Wyoming Paul is the co-founder of Grossr, a meal kit alternative through your supermarket.