More of my favorite Italian vegetables are protrude to produce nicely in the garden these day .
The most prominent vegetables have to be the trombette squash . I originate these squash on overhead trellises so that the young squash can hang down as they grow . This acquire straighter fruits because if the young squelch encounter any electric resistance while they are growing , they grow in a twisted breaking ball . My wife and my mother - in - law of nature both opt straight trombette , so I endeavor to hold them .
Trombette are eaten like courgette , and the most desirable fruits are the untested ones . The fruits grow quickly , and it takes only two day to go from the blossom open up to the fruit being ready to harvest .
Trombette also can be used as a winter squash racquets , in which event the fruits are reserve to raise to full size of it , which is about four foot long . I always harvest most of the fruit when they are vernal , and two or three trombette to rise to maturity date . The first photograph shows a young yield quick to glean on the left and a mature yield on the rightfield . Every region of Italy has their own particular squash favourite , so as nifty as trombette squash are , they are still mostly grown in Liguria . The veggie markets in Milan or Rome are much less probable to volunteer trombette but here in Rapallo almost every marketer tender them .
Another local Ligurian favorite are the small orotund eggplants , aka melanzane . These fruits shown in the second photo are an ancient Genovese variety , and are advert in records from six hundred years ago .
These small eggplant can be steamed or used in soups or gazpacho mixture and can in a pinch be used for eggplant parmesan . But the classic Genovese formula is to stuff them with a mildly cheesy filling . After cooking the small eggplants are about the sizing of a flatten Ping River pong egg , but they are delicious .
They are sort of a hassle to prepare , but there are more than a twelve places in Rapallo where pre - cooked Genovese choke up melanzane are sold alongside several other type of stuffed veg . There ’s a passably active market in these re - heatable stuffed veg , and they work sort of like TV dinner party do for Americans .
One of the things I wish about develop melanzane is that even though they are tomato cousins , they do n’t seem to be well-nigh as susceptible to disease problems here .
Some years the plants produce less abundantly than others , but so far I ’ve not had a single illustrious pesterer job . Sometimes the fruits do n’t become dingy purple , but instead remain a kind of violet Charles Grey , but even the grey fruit are tasty . In any display case , the small-scale purple eggplant flowers are always attractive .
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