This article is about the vegetable. Ordinary zucchini fruit are any zucchini chips air fryer of green, though the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange.

Zucchini occasionally contain toxic cucurbitacins, making them extremely bitter, and causing severe gastero-enteric upsets. Causes include stressed growing conditions, and cross pollination with ornamental squashes. Zucchini descends from squashes first domesticated in Mesoamerica over 7,000 years ago, but the zucchini itself was bred in Milan in the late 19th century. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. The name zucchini is used in American, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand English.

Accademia della Crusca, the Italian language regulator. Zucchini is also used in Canadian French, Danish, German, and Swedish. Courgette is also used in Dutch. The name baby marrow is used in South Africa to name a zucchini harvested when extremely immature, the size of an index finger. The female flower is a golden blossom on the end of each emergent zucchini. Both flowers are edible and are often used to dress a meal or to garnish the cooked fruit. Firm and fresh blossoms that are only slightly open are cooked to be eaten, with pistils removed from female flowers, and stamens removed from male flowers.

The stems on the flowers can be retained as a way of giving the cook something to hold onto during cooking, rather than injuring the delicate petals, or they can be removed prior to cooking, or prior to serving. Zucchini, like all squash, has its ancestry in the Americas, specifically Mesoamerica. However, the varieties of green, cylindrical squash harvested immature and typically called “zucchini” were cultivated in northern Italy, as much as three centuries after the introduction of cucurbits from the Americas. The first records of zucchini in the United States date to the early 1920s. It was almost certainly taken to America by Italian immigrants and probably was first cultivated in the United States in California.

A 1928 report on vegetables grown in New York State treats ‘Zucchini’ as one among 60 cultivated varieties of C. These larger ones often have mature seeds and hard skins, requiring peeling and seeding. A zucchini with the flowers attached is a sign of a truly fresh and immature fruit, and it is especially sought after for its sweeter flavor. Unlike cucumber, zucchini is usually served cooked. It can be prepared using a variety of cooking techniques, including steamed, boiled, grilled, stuffed and baked, barbecued, fried, or incorporated in other recipes such as soufflés. Zucchini has a delicate flavor and can be found simply cooked with butter or olive oil and herbs, or in more complex dishes.

The skin is usually left in place. Zucchinis can be cut with a spiralizer into noodle-like spirals and used as a low-carbohydrate substitute for pasta or noodles, often referred to as ‘Zoodles’. In Australia, a popular dish is a frittatalike dish called zucchini slice. In Bulgaria, zucchini may be fried and then served with a dip, made from yogurt, garlic, and dill. Another popular dish is oven-baked zucchini—sliced or grated—covered with a mixture of eggs, yogurt, flour, and dill. In Egypt, zucchini may be cooked with tomato sauce, garlic, and onions.