Hercules' leg – Cucuzza Longa – Sicilian zucchini

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 zucchini (Hercules leg)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 chili pepper or part thereof
• 4 tomatoes, preferably Piccadilly tomatoes or 1 can of chopped tomatoes, approx. 400 g
• 1 handful of fresh basil
• e.g. olive oil for frying
• n. B. Salt
• e.g. Pecorino or Grana Padano, also Parmesan
• 400 g pasta, e.g. penne
• 4 potatoes if it is a soup
• n. B. water

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

as vegetables, soup or pasta

Be sure to peel the tomato leg, halving it lengthwise with a vegetable peeler like a cucumber, or quarter it if necessary. You can leave the inside intact and cook it with the meat. However, if it’s already soft and fluffy, or especially if it has developed many large seeds, scrape out the inside towards the bottom with a tablespoon. Then cut the tomatoes into finger-width slices and set aside. Cut fresh tomatoes into small pieces. Or peel the tomatoes – to do this, make a cross-shaped cut in the tip and blanch them in boiling water. Briefly leave the tomatoes in the water and then rinse thoroughly with cold water. The skin will then peel off easily. Remove the seeds if desired, chop the flesh into small pieces, and set aside. Alternatively, use canned tomatoes. Depending on the size of the tomato leg, 400g may be too much. The tomatoes shouldn’t dominate the dish. I therefore like to use any type of tomato and, if necessary, enhance the flavor with a little tomato paste from a tube. Use the garlic whole. If it’s nice and fresh, it doesn’t need to be peeled. If you want to taste a little more of it and leave it in the pan later, press the cloves down with a knife. Use the chili peppers, whole or in part, with or without seeds, as you like. Simply slice them lengthwise, but don’t cut all the way through. They’ll usually be fished out or eaten with the rest. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add the garlic and chili peppers and sauté. Don’t fry the garlic for too long. Add the tomatoes and let them melt. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer until the liquid has almost evaporated. Crush the tomatoes with a wooden spoon if necessary. Add the roe deer leg and stir. If making a soup, add the diced potatoes at this point and fry them. Then bring everything to a boil. Fish out the garlic and chili peppers if necessary. Reduce the heat to medium, season with salt and add some of the finely torn basil leaves. Now add water. For a vegetable or pasta dish, about a glass of water is sufficient. For a soup, add water at least halfway up the vegetables (this makes the broth really intense) or until the vegetables are covered. Cover the soup with a lid while it cooks. Now simmer everything over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, or longer if necessary, until the leg of venison is tender. The vegetables will become translucent. The soup is now ready. Add bread, crumbled into the soup if desired, or pasta. These are then added to the pan along with the leg of venison. Use a little less than for the pasta dish, about 300 grams. Tip: Stir in cheese into the soup as well. If the dish is being served as a vegetable or pasta dish, allow the liquid to reduce slightly until it becomes creamy. Diced cheese is often stirred in at the end and garnished with the remaining basil. Since I think pecorino tastes best with it, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I serve the cheese grated. The vegetables are served with bread. For a pasta dish, cook the pasta for slightly less than the packaged cooking time, reserving some of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the pan with the vegetables and cook together over high heat for two minutes. Add a little more of the pasta’s cooking water if needed. Overall, a very simple, yet delicious, authentic dish to extend the holiday feeling. Enjoy! Note: This recipe reflects the most common preparation of a Sicilian specialty, the Hercules’ Leg. In Italian, it’s called “Cucuzza Longa” or “Zucchini Lunga/Siciliana” or “Zucca Lunga.” The Hercules’ Leg isn’t found everywhere. Perhaps you can find an Italian allotment gardener among your friends, or you can get the seeds if you’re a gardener yourself. It’s worth it. The fruit is a type of pumpkin—like the zucchini—”Lagenaria siceraria var. longissima.” As a ground plant, it winds in a serpentine manner, but is usually trained on a trellis and grows quite long. One of its many proper names is therefore “Zucchetta da Pergola.” It is harvested at lengths between 40/50 cm and a good meter. Piccadilly tomatoes are also known as “plum tomatoes,” if you can even get them. It’s also enough to look for plum-shaped tomatoes with small tips at the top at the market.