Courgettes - What size to pick them?

[JR]

Hi my OH's side of the family are Italian and rib me constantly about picking things to early.

After reading up it seems in the case of courgettes I might be correct on one thing at least.

I like to pick them once they are around 5 inches? They would let them all turn to marrows I reckon.

See picture below taken last night.

.

I do agree you can leave one or two to become marrows as stuffed with mince and sauce they are really nice.

What do you think?

[marshlander]

That's gourmet size.

I usually wait until they're a just tadge bigger (banana size?) still yummy and I get more for my money!

[Lady Willow]

I pick them at exactly the size shown in your photo. Not only do they taste better, but they encourage the plant to fruit more.

Ignore those pesty Italians.... what do Italians know about food!

[contadina]

Definitely a case of the more you pick, the more they grow. I wait until late on in the courgette season for some to turn into marrows.

Italian knowledge and love of food never ceases to amaze me. I had a long conversation with the vet when he visited yesterday about the best potatoes to use for making gnocchi (red ones apparently). This then progressed to the best sauces for gnocchi, different pesto recipes and regional differences in cooking styles.

[Turf cutter man]

yes pick them small and you will get a lot more to follow. Especially the early ones.


and remember you can eat the flowers just remove the stigma...you can batter them and deep fry them or in a salad.

[ina]

Italian knowledge and love of food never ceases to amaze me. I had a long conversation with the vet when he visited yesterday about the best potatoes to use for making gnocchi (red ones apparently). This then progressed to the best sauces for gnocchi, different pesto recipes and regional differences in cooking styles.

I love gnocchi! Had really nice ones in Italy once - just with butter and sage, I think... delicious. Can you pass on a few authentic tips?

[contadina]

Butter or even olive oil and sage is my favourite sauce for potato or ricotta gnocci. Just fry a handfull of sage leaves in the oil or butter until they start to crisp and then pour over your cooked gnocci. For semolina gnocci I prefer a tomato sauce with cheese - but the beauty of gnocci is you can experiment with all manner of sauces.

I'll post a couple of gnocci recipes up later, just going to polish of a plate of panzanella for lunch using our first tomatoes of the year!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

We've been picking courgettes about the size of my little finger for a couple of weeks now and frying them quickly to serve with pasta or couscous. Fantastic. I'm just annoyed that I didn't think of it years ago.