Courgetti

I laughed when I noticed the name on this packet I had picked up in Tesco’s Supermarket. The spirally courgettes (ridiculously cut up and ready for me to cut, when I could of course have done it myself, but they were on the cheapo shelf) had already gone into that evening’s stir-fry.

Who’s ever heard of Courgetti, I chuckled to my family? They must have made that up. Mixing up their courgettes and their zucchini. Or, actually they mixed up courgettes and spaghetti — and that is a thing now. Tesco did not actually mess up, or invent the name. Courgetti — courgettes cut up into spirals — have become a standard alternative for many to wheat-based noodles.

Best of all, in the US — where they eat zucchini, not courgettes — they’re called Zoodles!

I buy courgettes in the supermarket here in Ireland, though in Tuscany I would have asked for zucchine and in Canada they’re zucchini. Why the difference?

This thin-skinned summer squash, a younger version of a marrow, the courgette actually originated in the Americas — along with the other members of the Squash family (known as cucurbits) which includes melon, pumpkins and cucumbers. These were all a staple in central and south American for…