Definition of "zucchina"

The squashes are used by Italians for frying and other purposes are very small, and for this reason they are called “Zucchine” or small squashes. […] The “Zucchine” are an extremely tasty vegetable and they are especially good when fried.

1919, Maria Gentile, “32. Fried Squash (Zucchine fritte)”, in The Italian Cook Book: The Art of Eating Well: Practical Recipes of the Italian Cuisine, Applewood Books, published 2008, page 28

Mr. Robinson notes that all through Italy the zucchina is picked when it is about the size of a small cucumber—generally before the flower has opened, and that this early cutting causes the plants to produce very freely.

1931, Elizabeth Lucas, Vegetable Cookery, page 263

Vegetable Novelties which will attract attention and make sales include:[sic] […] Long Black Zucchina Squash […]

1934, “Profits in Roadside Marketin”, in Vaughan’s Market Gardener’s Wholesale Price List: Our 1934 Market Specialties, page 3

The cockscombs, which in England are apparently always thrown away, must be cooked for an hour in salted water and skinned, the cooked artichoke hearts sliced into rounds, the partly cooked cauliflower divided into flowerets, the zucchine cut into chips (see zucchine fritte, p. 168), and the brains prepared as for croquettes (p. 146).

1954, Elizabeth David, Italian Food, published 1987, page 136

For vegetables, the Taorminese is no less well off: finocchio – the Sicilian fennel – grows everywhere; so too does the small marrow – zucchina.

1967, Howard Agg, A Cypress in Sicily: A Personal Adventure, page 55

Tino’s—235 E. 58th St., 751-0311. Jacket required. Northern Italian. Spcls: linguine with broccoli & zucchine, costolette alla Milanese, pollo alla Tino.

1983 November 7, New York, page 137

Chop all the vegetables finely except the zucchine.

1986, The Spectator, volume 256, page 39

The zucchina (or zucchino, customarily used in the plural, zucchini) was absolutely new to Europe, along with many other squashes.

1992, Stefano Milioni, Columbus Menu: Italian Cuisine after the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus, 1492-1992, page 82

Stir in the garlic and the zucchine. […] Raise the heat slightly and cook until the zucchine are just tender.

1994, Carla Capalbo, The Ultimate Italian Cookbook: Over 200 Authentic Recipes from All Over Italy, Illustrated Step-by-step, page 58

The names are a source of a little confusion: in France, it is a courgette, a name the British have borrowed; in Italy the same vegetable is a zucchina, which translates as baby pumpkin.

2003, Waitrose Food Illustrated, page 64

Don't neglect to pick those male flowers that lack the bulge at the base that will become a zucchina. There are so many wonderful ways to use them in cooking, from pasta sauce to stuffed with a cous cous mixture and fried.

2009 June 5, Giusi, “Re: Zucchini Salad”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet), message-ID <78s48pF1nt3d2U1@mid.individual.net>

‘Ogni parte della pianta,’ says Amalia, washing the freshly plucked courgettes in her kitchen sink, ‘every part of the plant. That’s the beauty of the zucchina. You can use the flesh, the small leaves, even the stalk. And, of course, you can eat the flowers.’ /It’s the flowers which have seduced me into giving zucchine a second chance: outsized yellow stars spangling under the sun. Zucchina flowers are sold still attached to the slender green batons of fruit here, or in bundles on their own.

2011, Tracey Lawson, A Year in the Village of Eternity, page 156