After seeking advice from a local nonna, Jaci developed a recipe for Italian gourd soup from the gourd she grew.
Photo by
Jaci Hicken
Jaci Hicken, a seasoned Riv journalist and trained chef, shares her wealth of knowledge on growing, cooking and preserving homegrown produce, as well as insights from running her cooking school. In this edition, Jaci grows and cooks something she has never grown or cooked before: an Italian gourd.
From the front yard of my place, you don’t think much of the garden; there isn’t one, just a couple of old azaleas, three deciduous trees that supply summer shade and winter light to my north-facing home, a black mulberry and my attempt to standardise two pomegranates.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
All the fruit and vegetable action is around the back.
Over nearly two decades, I've lovingly transformed my once-bare backyard into a thriving oasis.
It now boasts over 50 fruit trees, a vibrant array of flowering shrubs, bulbs and plants, along with self-seeded vegetables dotting the landscape, all complemented by 11 productive raised garden beds.
My vegetable patch has become a sustainable, self-sufficient paradise for a vegetable gardener.
As that vegetable gardener, I’m always on the lookout for new food plants to grow.
Last spring, while perusing a local nursery, I stumbled upon a treasure: seeds for an intriguing Italian gourd.
The promise of a new culinary adventure was too tempting to resist, and I eagerly added the packet to my basket.
The packet contained only four seeds, which grew into three seedlings.
The seedlings were planted out in a raised garden bed with tomatoes and tromboncino zucchinis and nurtured to produce two baseball bat-sized fruits.
Jaci is always looking for new food plants to grow and recently came across Italian gourd seeds, which grew into baseball bat-sized fruit.
Photo by
Jaci Hicken
Harvesting the first gourd was a moment of triumph, but it also brought a delightful culinary challenge.
I found myself wondering, ‘What culinary magic can I create with this unusual vegetable? How do I prepare it to bring out its best flavours?’
For the last couple of years, I have volunteered at my local Italian Festa, getting to know the local nonnas.
So, I popped into the home of my friend Mary, a local nonna, to ask her how she would cook an Italian gourd.
“Soup,” she said, proceeding to give me a verbal recipe on how to cook the Italian gourd as a soup with onion, potato and a tin of chopped tomatoes.
Using her advice, I developed this recipe.
Italian gourd soup
Ingredients
A splash of olive oil
1 cup of onion — peeled and finely diced
1 cup of potato — peeled and cut into 1cm cubes.
2 cups of Italian gourd — peeled, seeded and cut into 1cm cubes, I’d like to say, but you can’t cut a circle into a cube.
1 No. 31 vacola jar of tomatoes
A bunch of lemon thyme
Added water.
Salt and pepper.
Method
In a soup pot, splash in the olive oil and heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent.
Add the potato, Italian gourd, tomatoes and thyme. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer until the potato is cooked, but still firm.
Season with salt and pepper. Serve.
Mary said to serve the soup with a piece of crusty bread, with a good spread of butter.
Do you have a recipe you've never tried before and would like Jaci to cook? Share your recipe inspirations at jaci.hicken@mmg.com.au
