Ingredient: Courgettes. Italy’s Green Gold and Pasta’s Best Friend

Imagine a vegetable that is humble, versatile, and endlessly adaptable. A vegetable that can be transformed from crispy fried rounds to silky ribbons in pasta. Enter the courgette — or zucchini, depending on where you grew up — Italy’s green gold, and the unsung hero of the southern kitchen.

But don’t let its quiet, green exterior fool you. Courgettes have a story as rich, layered, and twisted as the pasta they accompany. They arrived in Europe as part of the Columbian exchange, journeying from the Americas to Italy sometime in the 16th century, long before “farm-to-table” became a hashtag. By the 19th century, Italian gardeners had honed this New World squash into the long, slender, tender vegetable we recognize today — perfect for slicing, frying, stuffing, or grating.

Courgettes Across Italian Regions

Italy didn’t just adopt courgettes; Italians fell in love with them. Each region has a unique spin on the humble squash.

• Campania: Home of Spaghetti alla Nerano, this region celebrates courgettes in golden fried rounds, sautéed until tender, and then mixed with pasta and Provolone cheese. Every forkful tastes like the Amalfi Coast’s sunshine and sea breeze.
• Sicily: In the land of cannoli and caponata, courgettes are often layered in pasta with seafood, baked in ceramic dishes, or turned into stuffed zucchini (zucchine ripiene), sometimes with a hint of mint, sometimes with breadcrumbs, and always with love.
• Calabria & Basilicata: Here, courgettes meet legumes, like beans and chickpeas, in rustic, hearty pasta dishes. Fried, stewed, or baked, they’re never shy, often carrying chili or local pecorino alongside.
• Tuscany & Emilia-Romagna: Courgettes get refined: in delicate ribbons over fresh pasta with a drizzle of olive oil, garlic, and maybe a sprinkle of Parmesan, letting the flavor of the vegetable shine without distraction.

Courgettes and the Pasta Romance

The courtship of courgettes and pasta is ancient and ongoing. Italians quickly realized that the tender flesh and subtle sweetness of zucchini complemented fresh and dried pasta alike.

• Ribboned courgettes pair beautifully with tagliatelle or fettuccine, creating a dish that feels light yet satisfying.

• Chunky diced zucchini matches perfectly with rigatoni or penne, capturing sauce in every crevice.

• Grated courgette can be folded into gnocchi, frittata, or even fresh ravioli, hiding green goodness in every bite.

Courgettes are so versatile that there’s virtually no pasta they can’t improve. Whether they’re starring in a summer seafood linguine or humbly sautéed with orecchiette and ricotta salata, they elevate simple meals into something extraordinary.

Courgette Fun Facts

• Zucchini flowers are edible and luxurious: Italians call them fiori di zucca and stuff them with ricotta or anchovies, or simply fry them until golden. It’s a fleeting summer delicacy.
• Courgettes grow faster than gossip in a small Italian town: Plant one in your garden, and you might end up hosting a zucchini harvest competition by August.
• The Italian obsession with “using up” courgettes has birthed countless creative dishes. Bread, cakes, soups, pasta sauces — nothing is off-limits.
• Old-school drying techniques: Before refrigeration, southern Italians would slice and sun-dry courgettes for winter, proving ingenuity long before Instagram hacks existed.
• The largest courgette ever recorded weighed over 65kg. That’s not dinner; that’s an agricultural marvel.

Pasta Pairings to Celebrate Courgettes

Here’s a curated list of pasta dishes where courgettes shine, from humble to extravagant:

1. Spaghetti alla Nerano – fried courgettes, spaghetti, Provolone, fresh basil. A classic Amalfi Coast hit.
2. Orecchiette con Zucchine e Fiori – “little ears” pasta with zucchini and delicate courgette flowers.
3. Rigatoni con Zucchine e Ricotta Salata – ridged pasta, zucchini cubes, salty ricotta, and chili flakes.
4. Lagane e Zucchine con Ceci – thick, rustic pasta with courgettes and chickpeas, perfect for a winter night.
5. Linguine con Gamberi e Zucchine – seafood meets vegetable ribbons in a light, fresh sauce.
6. Tagliatelle con Pesto di Zucchine – zucchini blended into green pesto with almonds, basil, and olive oil.
7. Farfalle con Zucchine e Pomodorini – playful bow-tie pasta with zucchini ribbons and sun-ripened cherry tomatoes.

Why Courgettes Deserve More Respect

It’s tempting to dismiss courgettes as “just green stuff,” but they’re so much more. They’re versatile, forgiving, and able to take on any flavor you throw at them. They’re sustainable, prolific, and can transform the humblest pasta dish into a celebration. And culturally, they’re a bridge between past and present, between northern and southern Italian kitchens, between old-school rustic traditions and modern inventive cuisine.

Next time you slice, fry, or grate a courgette, remember: you’re participating in a centuries-old culinary romance. From American origins to Italian genius, from humble garden vegetable to pasta superstar, courgettes are living proof that good things come in green packages.