Story and photos by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet TM

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The elusive and audacious Travelling Gourmet tells you about the…

MUCH loved Zucchini and Courgette…

The raison  d’etre for the confusion between the humble zucchini and the upper class courgette is because they come from one and the same family of Vegetables! Both are summer squash vegetables belonging to the Cucurbit vegetable family (Cucurbita pepo). Some are canary yellow whereas others are jungle green.

The etymology of the zucchini vegetable comes from the Italian word zucchino, which literally means a tiny squash or undeveloped marrow. On the contrary, courgette is obviously of French origin. It can also be regarded as the French term counterpart for the word zucchini itself.

Zucchini and courgette may be similar plant vegetables but they called different names depending on the dominant language of the country. The first is usually used in territories rich in English, which is Northern American or Australian in nature. Zucchini is of course the name used in sunny Italy! Courgette is being used for French and British English users plus the English speaking public residing in New Zealand and South Africa.

Zucchini and courgette are different from each although they pertain to the same vegetable family. They are growing in different stages of development. In this regard, the market has made a standard definition for both veggies. During its infant growth, these baby plants can already be harvested after reaching a dimension of about 14 by 4 centimeters in length. This size is actually comparable to how small a typical cigar is. At this point, this veggie is best termed as a courgette.

In the latter part of this vegetable’s growth, it can already be regarded as a zucchini after growing some more as it grows to about 15-20 centimeters. This veggie is preferably served cooked contrary to its cucumber counterpart. Lastly, there is also another term for this same plant that has almost matured and has reached its maximum size. At this time, it is already more suitable to call it a marrow. Overall, courgettes are smaller and younger whereas zucchinis are older and bigger in size.

In very SIMPLE terms, a courgette is a small baby zucchini capische!

Summary :
1.The term Zucchini has an Italian origin while courgette is relatively French.
2.Zucchini is used by those people who speak North American and Australian English whereas courgette is used by those who speak French, British, New Zealand and South African English.
3.Zucchini and courgette are the same plant veggies but are used to refer to that same plant, which is growing across its different stages of plant development. The courgette is smaller and estimated to be about 14 x 4 cm long whereas the zucchini is bigger, which is estimated to grow as big as 15-20 cm.