Another summertime pleasure of mine is the "Scopatizzo Barese" cucumber, native to the area of southern Italy I live in. It's kind of like a cucumber and kind of like a melon. In fact, its scientific name is Cucumis Melo, or cucumber melon. Imagine a cucumber, but slightly sweeter, more compact and crunchier.
It has a furry skin that you can peel off, but many people just wash it to minimize the fuzz and then eat the whole thing. I don't mind eating the skin, but I draw the line at the seeds. There are more of them and they are larger than your average cucumber seed.
Prepare it the same way you would a cucumber. It is so cool and refreshing that I think cooking it would be a pity. My favorite recipe is to simply eliminate the seeds, peel and chop it and serve either alone or with fresh, chopped tomatoes, dressed with a pinch of salt and some extra-virgin olive oil.
The taste of summer!
10 comments:
looks so yummy! I love the varieties of cucumbers I can get here in north america, but this one looks cool!
thanks for following and entering my giveaway
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I never heard of such a cucumber and will be looking for it in our Italian specialty market.
Well I have never seen one of those on the market here. Will have to look closer!
Varieties of cucumbers? Who knew? I've lived sheltered life vegetably speaking! ;-)
I know these exist in the US cause I found them online:
http://www.elzingagreenhouses.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=759
that's a melon. definitely. :P
That is some cucumber! Cool.
this is one of my favorite things to eat when i am in Molfetta.
ooo, that looks SO yummy
Gosh, I've never seen one of those before!
Welshcakes, it's odd that while we're both "southern Italy" we have such different availability of foodstuffs!
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