Squashes, Tender or Summer: Tatume

Oval or egg-shaped zucchini like Tatume are unusual not only for their form but for their extraordinarily dense, smooth flesh. My 5-inch-long sample weighed well over 1 pound—all solid, seamless, virtually seedless meat. While the most tasty and attractive part of most tender squash is the skin and the adjacent flesh, this one is sweet and flavorful throughout.

The type is common in Mexico. “Markets from Mazatlan to Merida are piled high with zucchini, but not the zucchini we know. The vegetable, called calabacita there, has a pale-green complexion”, according to Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen. “The texture is compact, not porous or watery, and the flavor is slightly sweet. Luckily, I’ve been seeing . . . squash that they call tatume . . . at my farmers’ market [in Chicago], so our options are growing.” Glenn Drowns, curator for vine crops at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, says that Tatume probably originated in Mexico and that it is popular in South Texas, but that it is increasingly rare.